UN committee calls for ban on female circumcision

his picture taken on September 20, 2011 shows young Maasai girls at a traditional village near Narok, some 170 kms west of Nairobi, where the culture of female-circumcisiion is still practiced despite having been outlawed. AFP FILE PHOTO

UNITED NATIONS – Campaigners against female circumcision have scored a major victory with the approval by a key U.N. committee of a resolution calling for a global ban on female genital mutilation.

The resolution, adopted by consensus Monday by the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee, calls the practice harmful and a serious threat to the psychological, sexual and reproductive health of women and girls.

It calls on the U.N.’s 193 member states to condemn the widespread practice and launch education campaigns to eliminate it.

With 110 sponsors, the resolution is virtually certain to be approved by the full General Assembly in the second half of December.

Italy’s U.N. Ambassador Cesare Maria Ragaglini says the committee’s approval marks “a breakthrough in the international campaign to end the harmful practice,” known as FGM.