Since 2000, NPWJ works with women’s rights activists, parliamentarians and government representatives across the world to target female genital mutilation (FGM) and other forms of violence committed against women that tend to be addressed as cultural issues, rather than as violations of universal human rights. 

This also means mobilising national authorities to enact and enforce legislation unequivocally banning all forms of gender-based violence, protecting its victims and ending impunity.

Following the Ban FGM Campaign, which saw its successful culmination with the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly, on 20 December 2012, of the historic resolution calling for a worldwide ban on female genital mutilation (A/RES/67/146), NPWJ continues to work to tackle this and other forms of violence against women, as both a result and a perpetuation of gender inequality and discrimination that denies them the most basic forms of personal autonomy and self-determination. In addition to FGM, these include forced and child marriage, marital rape, denial of reproductive rights and other violations that are manifestations of women’s subordinate status.

Recent initiatives carried out by NPWJ include BEFORE (Best practices to Empower women against Female genital mutilation, Operating for Rights and legal Efficacy), supported by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) and EMANCIPA-MI, supported by The Circle, the Municipality of Milan (Italy) and Fondazione Bracco.

In addition to a study aimed at assessing the prevalence of early and forced marriage in Italy and at strengthening the legal framework to combat it, NPWJ conducted in partnership with AMREF and other organisations a series of initiatives under the framework of the P-ACT Project aimed at improving, with the direct involvement of migrant and diaspora communities, the effectiveness of policies and legal measures targeting female genital mutilation in Italy.

NPWJ also focused its efforts in championing policies and best practices in development programs intended to empower women and girls as agents of sustainable change as well as to support refugee and humanitarian first-line response actors in combating sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).