The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution to ban FGM worldwide, urging nations to condemn the practice, launch educational campaigns, as well as enact and enforce legislation against it. While the resolution does not legally bind nations to these standards, it carries a high level of political and moral accountability for each nation to uphold.
Amnesty International estimates 3 million girls undergo FGM every year. The practice is commonplace in 28 countries in Africa, in addition to Yemen, Iraq, Malaysia, Indonesia and certain ethnic groups in South America. There is a presence of it in immigrant communities in Europe and the United States, but the prevalence is still unclear.
Amy Fairbairn, director of communications for the non-profit Tostan, stated, “There is tremendous progress under way…Most notably for us, there is historic progress in the growing movement to end FGC in West Africa, where to date nearly 6,000 communities have publicly abandoned the practice, over 5,000 of those in Senegal alone where the FGC-Free Senegal movement is really gaining momentum."
Comprised from: Baruch Ben-Chorin, UN calls for ban on “grotesque practice” of female genital mutilation, NBC News (20 December 2012).