July 2022 – On 7 April 2022, the religious leaders and representatives from eight African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), representing Christian, Muslim, Hindus and Baha’i communities, gathered at the conference “Faith and Culture on ending harmful practices affecting children.”

Convened virtually by ACRL-RfP in collaboration with UNICEF, the leaders discussed religious and cultural considerations affecting children in the region, decried the continued negative impacts of harmful practices, and committed to rallying their communities to end harmful practices affecting children by 2030.

Speaking at the Conference, Ms. Lieke van de Wiel, Deputy Regional Director, UNICEF ESARO, emphasized that “both practices (child marriage and female genital mutilation) are a form of violence to human beings, and the key is sustaining the change from harmful practices over generations to come. For us to change these practices in the long-term, we really have to find ways to mitigate the fallback in behaviors and sustain the practice not to fall into child marriage and FGM.”

Dr. Francis Kuria, Secretary-General, ACRL-RfP, committed to the continued mobilization of religious actors across the continent to eliminate harmful practices affecting children. He cited initiatives such as ‘Faith and Positive Change for Children, Families, and Communities’ as one of the avenues the council is undertaking to address harmful practices and broadly highlighted the impact on the knowledge capacity of religious actors.

Linking with the regional situations, trends, and dynamics, a joint statement was released to commit to eliminating all harmful practices, with a focus on child marriage and female genital mutilation in the Eastern and Southern Africa region by 2030.