National Workshop in Senegal to foster effective implementation of UNGA resolution banning Female Genital Mutilation

Maison de la Presse, Dakar, Senegal, 20 December 2016


 
On 20 December 2016, No Peace Without Justice, in partnership with the Ministry of Women, Family and Childhood of Senegal,  La Palabre, COSEPRAT and  the Inter-African Committee for Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children  (IAC), convened a national workshop in Dakar, Senegal, aimed at fostering the implementation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 69/150 calling for a worldwide ban on female genital mutilation.
 
The workshop was held under the high patronage of the Ministry of Women, Family and Childhood of Senegal and was organised with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.Participants included representatives from the Ministry of Women, Family and Childhood and the Ministry of Justice, the judicial sector, civil society activists, as well as representatives of UN agencies (UNICEF, UNFPA).
 
In addition to aiming to consolidate the political will of Senegalese authorities to implement Resolution 69/150, the workshop provided an opportunity to analyse and discuss national mechanisms designed to protect women and girls against FGM and to identify adequate measures to improve existing strategies addressing violations of the prohibition of FGM and build the capacity of the police, gendarmerie and the judiciary in ensuring compliance with the law, with a focus on areas of the country where FGM prevalence is high (Matam, Tamba, Kédougou, Kolda, Sédhiou, Ziguinchor, Saint Louis, Thiès (Mbour)).

The Senegalese law banning FGM dates to 1999, and furthermore, the Constitution of 22 January 2001 establishes that the right to the integrity of the person must be guaranteed and protected, notably against any form of physical mutilation. Similarly to other countries in which FGM is committed, the fight against this human rights violation requires enhanced cooperation and synergy of action among all institutions and civil society organisations focused on FGM, including work to prevent and condemn the rise of its medicalisation, as well as the strict and effective enforcement of the law prohibiting FGM, to protect its victims and to hold perpetrators to account.
 
 
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For more information, contact Alvilda Jablonko, Coordinator of the Gender and Human Rights Program, on ajablonko@npwj.org, phone: +32 494 533 915 or Nicola Giovannini, email: ngiovannini@npwj.org, phone: +32 2 548 39 15.