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 will take 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, which will take place from 22 February to 4 March 2011.
NPWJ and its partners will reiterate 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 will advocate 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, will take 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).
Over the last year, NPWJ, IAC, Euronet-FGM and the association La Palabre have promoted several initiatives to raise awareness at international level on the need of a UNGA resolution, supported by African activists, parliamentarians and governments, as well as by the Italian Government. By recognising and celebrating laws that already exist, a UN General Assembly Resolution would help bestow legitimacy on those people who are campaigning for legislation in those States that do not yet have a law, aiding their struggle by showing that the international community is firmly on their side. Therefore, we call on the UN and its member states to speak as a whole and take an unequivocal and joint stance in order to acknowledge the courage of the women and girls who have said no to FGM and help give confidence to those who want to say no but have lacked the support to do so.
For further information: Betty Pagotto, +32 2 548 39 10, bpagotto@npwj.org or Nicola Giovannini, +32-2-548-3915, ngiovannini@npwj.org.
NPWJ New York office: 866 UN Plaza #408, New York NY 10017, Phone +1 212 9802558
Check also the websites: http://www.npwj.org – http://www.banfgm.org/
