The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), says that its interventions of achieving a zero-tolerance policy on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) have led to over 594 communities across the country denouncing the practice.
Nkiru Maduechesi, child protection specialist with UNICEF, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Akure, the Ondo state capital at a three-day workshop for training of law enforcement agencies and judiciary officers on the anti-female genital mutilation law.
The training was organised by the Federal Ministry of Information, Child Rights Information Bureau in Collaboration with UNICEF, and participants were drawn from Osun, Oyo, and Ekiti states.
According to Maduechesi, the organisation is driving towards achieving zero tolerance and making law enforcers more aware of the dangers of FGM.
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She says part of the problem facing the frontline workers in eradicating the menace was because it was a sort of social norm and people, including some law enforcement agencies, are not seeing it as a crime.
Maduechesi, however, says the essence of the training workshop on enforcement of FGM laws across the states and to strengthen the knowledge of law enforcers towards enforcement of laws to protect our girl child.
She notes that FGM was one of the worst human rights violations that had been in the country for generations because of the life-long traumatic effects that a girl child would carry for the rest of his life.
“As a social norm, people are not seeing it as a crime, as an offence, that is why UNICEF is investing together without partners in community dialogue, moving from community to community.
“Since the inception of this programme with our partners, UNFPA, we have supported over 594 communities to have a public declaration from their traditional ruler to the least person.”
