FOCUS: Children & Islam - The Big Picture

FACTS & FIGURES

CHILD PROTECTION
Birth registration: Governments need accurate population information in order to plan services for children and their caregivers. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, more than half of births go unregistered. In the most extreme cases, as in Bangladesh, birth registration can be as low as 7%.

Female genital mutilation / cutting: Between 100 million and 130 million women and girls in at least 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East, many of them OIC countries, have undergone female genital cutting. As of 2003, the prevalence of female cutting was essentially unchanged from a decade earlier, although the prevalence of the practice among girls in a number of African and Arab OIC countries is lower than among their mothers. Educated mothers are much less likely to have their daughters undergo genital mutilation / cutting.

Child labour: In Afghanistan, more than 30% of children aged 7-14 work, with at least 40,000 children on the streets of Kabul alone. Children as young as seven form part of the cotton-production labour force in the Central Asian republics. In the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa, half of all children aged 5-14 are working. A recent study by a Swiss institute found a steady increase in the number of children under 18 working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, from 10% in November 2001 to 23% in July 2003.