On International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, and UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, renewed the commitment of the EU and the UN to work together to end the recruitment and use of children in conflict situations, and to effectively support the reintegration of children associated with parties to conflict.

“One day they come and get you in groups. I was the oldest one. I remember it as if it were yesterday. There were at least six persons on me, because I was imploring, I didn’t want to. I was convinced that I would die. I was 9 years old…”, one victim relates. The pain… the horror… more than 200 million females across the world – women, girls, infants alike - have, like this victim, suffered the torture of female genital mutilation, including 500,000 in Europe. The EU is at the forefront of global efforts to end female genital mutilation by 2030. Female genital mutilation is a crime in all EU Member States, and this year we have seen the first convictions of persons that conducted this criminal practice.