An international conference focusing on a global scourge — female genital mutilation — made significant progress this week with an announcement from Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain that his government would prosecute parents who submit their daughters to that primitive abuse. The world can only wish for similar enlightenment in the 29 countries in Africa and in parts of Asia and the Middle East where genital mutilation is most common and where more than 130 million girls and women have been scarred for life.
“All girls have the right to live free from violence and coercion,” Mr. Cameron declared, speaking as the co-host of a global Girl Summit in London dedicated to eradicating both female genital mutilation and child marriage within a generation. This is an enormous goal. More than 700 million women alive today worldwide were forced into marriage as children, according to Unicef, the event’s co-sponsor.
Each year an estimated three million girls are at risk of genital mutilation, ranging in age from infancy to 15. The initiative by Mr. Cameron was driven by the growing realization in Britain that an estimated 20,000 girls, though born in the country, were at risk of genital mutilation by their parents, often immigrants fleeing countries in conflict where the practice is common, according to a report by City University London and the human rights group Equality Now. Researchers estimate up to 137,000 women and girls in Britain and Wales are victims of the practice, which was outlawed there in 1985 but is still prevalent in some communities. The stronger measure of prosecuting parents as criminals for cutting their daughters is to be accompanied by an aggressive education campaign by police and health officials.
The Girl Summit drew 500 government officials and mutilation victims and academics from around the world. The agenda included creating an “international charter” to enlist support from nations where abuses of young girls are most severe — a task more necessary than ever.