STOP FGM: Initiatives in Europe

In parallel to its activities carried out in Africa, NPWJ has also campaigned for the adoption of effective FGM legislative and other measures in Europe, and in particular in Italy.
 
In particular, beginning in 2002, NPWJ facilitated the consultation process that has led to the presentation and then the adoption of specific FGM legislation by the Italian Parliament. The Italian FGM legislation campaign was conducted by promoting several meetings involving associations of African women, political figures and experts and researchers on FGM, to foster, alongside the legislative process, a broad and comprehensive debate on the problem.
 
The adoption the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa has provided an important political impulse for action, demonstrating that the fight against FGM is not a Euro-centric or exclusively NGO-driven priority: quite the opposite, the text was the result of a political commitment of African Governments. Immediately following its entry into force, NPWJ organised a major meeting in the Italian Parliament in December 2005, which involved Government Representatives of all countries that had ratified the Protocol, leaders of immigrants communities involved in the fight against the practice of FGM, Italian Parliamentarians and the media, which resulted in a broad parliamentary consensus that quickly translated in the adoption of specific FGM legislation in January 2006. The text of the law, in addition to detailing the sanctions foreseen for those who practice FGM on Italian soil, calls for specific programs in multiple spheres - medical, social, educational and international - aimed at preventing the practice and providing public information. NPWJ is now engaged with the relevant Ministries to support the inclusion of stakeholders from Italian and European immigrant communities who are engaged in the effort to end the practice of FGM in the process of developing guidelines for the application of the law.
 
 
STOP FGM: Proposals for change
"Sala Marini" – Chamber of Deputies - Rome, 6 March 2001
 
Stop Female Genital Mutilation
Brussels, 10-12 December 2002
 
STOP FGM: “Female Genital Mutilation: information and services to immigrant women. From the Cairo Conference to national and regional initiatives”
Bologna, 27-28 October 2003
 
STOP FGM: The Fendi Gala Dinner to support the Stop Female Genital Mutilation Campaign
Rome, 31 March 2004
 
Presentation of the book «Mutilée - the cry of an excised woman»
With the author Khady Koita - Brussels, 7 December 2005
 
Protecting Girls from Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting – a matter of gender equality and social change
Rome, 13 December 2006
 
International Conference on Female Genital Mutilation and Forced/Early Marriages
Brussels, 8-11 February 2007
 
Never again. Female Genital Mutilation - a question of Human Rights
Salerno, 10 December 2007