Harmful Social Norms and UNICEF's Response

Across the world, millions of girls are permanently harmed by decisions made by their family and community. Their health has damaged their educational opportunities stunted, and it becomes impossible for them to achieve their full human rights. The beliefs behind harmful social norms such as child marriage and female genital cutting are deep rooted and reflect stark inequalities in the status of women and girls. Yet the decision to cut or to marry a girl young is made by loving parents with the very best of intentions to protect their daughters from the shame of being different. At the time I hadn't heard anything about the harms of cutting. I simply didn't want them to be outspoken and insulted by others. I got them cut to spare them that shame. Typically it's women who perpetuate these practices. They do so even when they're aware of the harm, because when an entire community conforms to a belief, it's almost impossible for an individual to defy it. UNICEF and the European Union work with government and non government partners to develop programs that help communities to examine social norms through the lens of human rights. The partnership works at international and national levels, but the engine driving this deep change is local. Non formal education reinforces positive values and links them to human rights. This gives entire communities the opportunity to reconsider what they believe to be true. Regular meetings provide a forum for communities to voice their concerns about practices that harm girls. And to realize that by acting together, change can be made. The campaign is targeting the communities, the abandoning of FGM should not be as a personal act, it should be as the act for the whole community. This collaborative approach is having remarkable success in ending harmful social norms. Adolescent girls have become role models for change, with the potential to alter the course of their own lives, and those of their communities. I would be so happy if cutting was totally abandoned in the whole world. I will not let any young girls marry. I will take legal action. I want to become somebody. Support from influential leaders is helping this movement to spread beyond individual communities. In Sudan, religious leaders and opinion formers play a crucial role in shaping new ways of thinking about the status of women. Challenging the notion that cutting is required by Islamic law. There is a growing human rights movement in the country. There are many conservative conservative and reactionary who try to speak about human rights as a cultural imperialism from outside. We have done exactly the opposite to say that Islam is the greatest bastion supporter of human rights. In India, the law prohibits child marriage, and where the practice is entrenched, state officials play an important role in ending it. But police act as counselors not enforces. When we get knowledge of any child marriage taking place, we immediately rush our staff our officer to the place and make an query first, then if we find that it is a true case of child marriage, then we try to prevail over the families of mind and try to educate them. We are not here to lecture them. But we are here to support them in finding solutions for this problem for this problem. As the solutions emerge, there is strength in numbers, communities are encouraged to make a public declaration of their new intention and to share their knowledge with others. And in very large countries, media is essential to spreading the message that girls and communities are better off for having reexamined their beliefs. When you talk about transformation of social norms, you can not do it by yourself just by one community. You have to go from one community to another. And when you want within a single country, you have to go even beyond the boundaries. But ending female cutting in child marriage are just two components of a much broader change. One with the power to transform societies. Giving women and men an opportunity to discuss human rights has had a significant impact in increasing the number of women who assume positions of influence in their community. I am the first girl in the village to get a high school diploma. The positive decision to bring an end to one practice that treats girls differently from boys can have a broader impact, helping communities to reconsider other harmful practices, such as sex selective abortion, and domestic violence. We are talking about literacy, we are talking about health. We are talking about women empowerment. Because we have seen that this program has bring about a lot of changes. With the support of the European Union, UNICEF has developed strategies that are effective, cost efficient, and ensure long-lasting change. They have the power to transform the lives of millions more children and families who suffer because of unexamined beliefs that perpetuate harm.