Rabat Declaration on Child’s Issues

In November in Rabat, Morocco, ministers, politicians and religious and community leaders from almost 50 Islamic countries met for the first Islamic Conference of Ministers in Charge of Childhood.

FORWARD is delighted with the resultant Rabat Declaration on Child’s Issues (188 KB .pdf) : “Guided by the teachings of Islam which stresses the need for taking due care of children and granting them their full rights” the declaration calls upon Muslim States to “take the necessary measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against girls and all harmful traditional or customary practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation.”

We are excited about what appears to be increasing international acknowledgment that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a violation of girls’ human rights which is not justified by Islam. FORWARD urges all good Muslims everywhere to abandon the practice of FGM and to adopt the key principle enshrined in Sharia: “that all children in all situations always and everywhere have the right to live and thrive to reach their full potential”.