Survivors and other campaigners have done admirable work, but efforts to eradicate the practice by the end of the decade are way off target Each day, 12,000 girls are at risk of female genital mutilation, subjecting them not only to immediate pain and violation of their rights, but to lifelong health complications and trauma. UN experts led by the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, described it this spring as committed against them. The UN set a target of eradicating FGM by the end of this decade, and impressive advances have been made in some countries. But overall, progress has stalled or reversed. In 2016, 200 million girls and women worldwide had undergone FGM. Since then, have endured it. Most FGM cases 144 million have happened in , with a reported 80 million in Asia and 6 million in the Middle East. The rate of decrease has been slower than population growth in communities where the practice persists, and Unicef says that girls are also being cut at a younger age, reducing the opportunities to intervene.
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