NPWJ participates at the Commission on the Status of Women

CSW, New York, 22 February-4 March 2011


No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) and several African partners of the international campaign for the adoption of a United Nations General Assembly Resolution banning Female Genital Mutilation took part into the works of the 55th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the functional commission of the ECOSOC exclusively dedicated to discuss and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide, from 22 February to 4 March 2011. 
NPWJ and its partners reiterated the request of a strong commitment by governments and the international community to ban FGM as a violation of universal human rights and physical integrity of women and girls. Through a range of activities to be carried out during the 55th session, they advocated in particular for the adoption of a United Nations General Assembly Resolution banning Female Genital Mutilation, as illustrated in the written statement released and submitted to the CSW.
 
Representatives of the coalition for the Ban FGM campaign, coming from 9 African countries, took part to the CSW: Mariam Lamizana (Burkina Faso, President of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Harmful Practices (IAC), former Minister of Social Action and National Solidarity of Burkina Faso), Khady Koita (Senegal, one of the most active anti-FGM militant, author of the book "Mutilated ", founder and president of La Palabre, awarded this year with the Rome Prize for Peace and Humanitarian Action), Morissanda Kouyaté (Guinea, head of operation of IAC), Rahim Kamara (Sierra Leone, Director of the organization Manifesto 99), Comfort Effiom (Cameroon, Director of the Inter-African Committee in Cameroon), Khadidia Sidibé (Mali, President of the Association Malienne pour le suivi et l'orientation des pratiques traditionnelles, who had a leadership role in the battle for the ratification and implementation of the Maputo Protocol in Africa), Marieme Baba Sy (Mauritania, member of AWAARD, Former Minister of Social Affairs, Childhood and the Family), Béatrice Chelangat (Uganda, coordinator of REACH-Uganda), Fatouma Boubé (Niger, President of CONIPRAT).
 

Together with the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) and the European Network for the Prevention and Eradication of Harmful Traditional Practices (Euronet-FGM), No Peace Without Justice organized on the 28 of February a Breakfast Meeting and Discussion (in the pictures). The meeting was chaired by H.E. Mrs Chantal Chantal Compaoré, First Lady of Burkina Faso, on the International Campaign for a United Nations General Assembly Resolution to Ban FGM Worldwide. 

On the margins of the 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the breakfast meeting and discussion brought together European and African activists and representatives of civil society organizations together with Parliamentarians and representatives of governments to exchange strategies and consider what next steps should be taken to strengthen the Ban FGM Campaign and work towards the adoption of a Resolution by the end of the year.
 
Visit the photo gallery of the event
Download the Concept Paper of the Event English-French
Download the Brochure of the Campaign
Further information on the International campaign to Ban FGM
 
For further information, please contact Alvilda Jablonko at ajablonko@npwj.org or at banfgm@npwj.org