Thank you very much indeed for this question. It gets to the heart of the matter of the fundamental human dignity that every woman and girl deserves no matter where she dwells.
It's an honour for me to provide this testimony in the presence of Dr. Hedy Fry, who has stood up for the understanding that the mindset that women's rights are something “nice to have” is not the correct one. This is actually equality for half the people on the planet. This is the type of dialogue that UNFPA—along with UN Women, along with UNICEF—is right now promoting vis-à-vis the inherent violence that not only female genital mutilation but also child marriage represent. Both are too prevalent.
With the COVID situation and the so-called lockdowns, with girls not being in school, with all of the disruption in the health system that Mr. Joel Spicer alluded to, the logistical nightmare of a child, a girl, being home and accessible to a potential predatory environment, like in the vignette I gave, being married off.... The fact is that we were making progress on child marriage and on ending female genital mutilation apace before last year.
Again, credit must be given where due. Canada, as a core supporter of UNFPA, contributed to our ability to have community dialogues with parents, including male fathers who for the first time were told what actually happens in that initiation ceremony and why many women can be affected, even in pregnancy, when you damage the birth canal. We try to be very practical.
Most fundamentally, we're promoting the idea that the girl's body is her own. She has the right to say no. She should be coached not to acquiesce to what she's asked to do but to think for herself and to have aspirations of being treated equally under the law and within the family.