Nearly a decade into the work undertaken by NPWJ on FGM and five years after the international conference in Cairo and the adoption of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, NPWJ is re-launching its FGM campaign at a high political level, with a view, on the one hand, to seek opportunities and possibilities to increase worldwide awareness – through advocacy aimed at international instruments and commitments – of the need to pass legislation outlawing FGM, and on the other hand to strengthen the commitment and the political will of concerned states, in particular in 2009 in West Africa, to work towards the elimination of the practice.
To that end, No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) and the Egyptian National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) organized, under the patronage of H.E. Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt, the
"Cairo Declaration on FGM +5" High Level Meeting on 13-15 December 2008 in Cairo, Egypt. The Meeting was attended, in addition to H.E. Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, H.E. Mrs Chantal Compaoré, First Lady of Burkina Faso and delegations representing 20 affected countries of the region, at the Ministerial level (Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo) as well as representatives of ministries and parliamentarians who have been at the forefront of work to pass effective FGM legislation, prominent members of civil society whose campaigns to end FGM in their respective countries have been of key importance, and international representatives and UN and regional organizations.
Held five years after the Cairo Conference "Afro-Arab Expert Consultation on Legal Tools for the Prevention of Female Genital Mutilation" held on 21-23 June 2003, this High Level Meeting provided the opportunity to undertake a systematic review of progress achieved and challenges encountered in campaigns aiming to eradicate FGM, as well as to foster a global climate in which the eradication of this violation of the rights of girls and women can be achieved, as proclaimed in the "Cairo + five declaration: ending FGM by outlawing it once and for all: a goal we can achieve". To keep the momentum, participants suggested that within a year, a follow-up conference be organized to analyse the progress made on addressing the High Level Meeting’s recommendations as well as progress made in other efforts to address FGM as a human rights violation and a sub-regional FGM legislation strategy coordination meeting.
To this end, NPWJ aims to organize a series of actions, also to determine a possible host for the follow-up conference called for in the "Cairo + five declaration", so that at the highest levels it will provide an opportunity for the reaffirmation of political commitment to FGM legislation, to fight against FGM and to consolidate technical capacity. NPWJ will hold consultations with stakeholders in countries with high FGM prevalence, and, in collaboration with its local partners, will organize seminars in three of the interested countries to accelerate the implementation of effective anti-FGM legislation.
In addition, NPWJ is seeking ways to widen its advocacy in the international sphere to mobilize resources for FGM elimination activities, such as lobbying at the parliamentary, government and inter-governmental levels for the adoption of relevant documents, resolutions and others instruments, as well as other actions, including notably the organization of a high-visibility event harnessing prominent artists to help spread the message, aimed at public opinion and decision-makers on the need to better fight FGM by outlawing it.
As part of its campaign, NPWJ is also planning activities aimed at addressing the regional/subregional/transregional elements of FGM practices and campaigns, where there is increasing need for a systematic and coherent approach: as part of this activity will be the development of a comparative assessment of the enactment and implementation of specific legislative measures on FGM, a "FGM Legislation Toolkit" which would serve as an instrument for parliamentarians, government representatives and civil society in their legal reform on FGM advocacy efforts.
