The International NGO Coalition for a worldwide ban on female genital mutilation has been campaigning since 2010 for the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a Resolution banning the practice. Following the decision by the 56th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March 2012 recommending that the General Assembly consider the issue of female genital mutilation at its 67th session later this year, the African Group at the UN is currently spearheading the effort to draft a Resolution.
In support of the African Group’s effort, the Ban FGM Coalition has launched an appeal to the United Nations for a Resolution that explicitly bans female genital mutilation worldwide, and calling on all States to adopt and implement legislation to ban female genital mutilation and to take all necessary legislative, political and operational measures aimed at ending the practice.
Within the past ten days, Prominent political personalities around the world, among whom Catherine Ashton, EU’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Clemence Traore Some, Minister of Social Affairs and National Solidarity (Burkina Faso), Patricia Espinosa, Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Mexico), and Paul Magnette, Minister of Public Enterprises, Science Policy and Development Cooperation (Belgium), have expressed their support to the International Appeal launched by the Ban FGM Coalition, calling upon the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a Worldwide Ban on female genital mutilation in 2012.
First prominent signatories of the Appeal included Chantal Compaoré, First Lady of Burkina Faso, Goodwill Ambassador of the Inter-African Committee, Coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban FGM Worldwide; Raymonde Coffie Goudou, Minister of Family, Women and Childhood, Ivory Coast; Sihem Badi, Minister of Women and Family Affairs, Tunisia; Maikibi Kadidiatou Dandobi, Minister of Population, Women’s Promotion and Child Protection, Niger; Olivia Amedjogbe-Kouevi, Minister for the Advancement of Women, Togo; Elio Di Rupo, Prime Minister, Belgium; Joëlle Milquet, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Belgium; Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission and EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship; Cecilia Malmström,EU Commissioner for Home Affairs.
The following Members of the European Parliament: Isabelle Durant, Vice-President of European Parliament (Greens, Belgium); Alexander Avaro, Vice-President of European Parliament (ALDE, Spain); Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice-President of European Parliament (ALDE, UK); Astrid Lulling, Member of the Parliament’s Bureau (EPP, Luxembourg); Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Co-Chair of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (France); Gabriele Zimmer, Chair of the Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left (Germany); Martin Callanan, Chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (UK); Barbara Lochbihler, Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights (Greens, Germany); Mikael Gustafsson, Chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (GUE/NGL Group, Sweden); Edite Estrela, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (S&D Group, Portugal); Elisabeth Morin-Chartier, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (EPP, France); Evelyn Regner, Vice-Chair Committee on Legal Affairs (S&D Group, Austria); Jörg Leichtfried, (S&D, Austria); Véronique Mathieu, (EPP, France); Hans-Peter Mayer, (EPP, Germany); Norbert Neuser, (S&D Group, Germany); Boris Zala, (S&D, Slovakia); Mojca Kleva (ALDE Group, Slovenia); Linda McAvan (S&D Group, UK); Marc Tarabella (S&D Group, Belgium); Catherine Stihler (S&D Group, UK).
The following parliamentarians: Rozan Dizayee, Kardo Mohammed, Awni K. Bazzaz, Abdullah Mohammed Ameen, Members of the Kurdistan Parliament-Iraq; Sabine de Bethune, President of the Senate, Belgium; Olga Zrihen, Marleen Temmerman, Fauzaya Talhaoui, Fatiha Saïdi, Nele Lijnen, Members of the Senate, Belgium; Gisèle Mandaila, Fatoumata Sidibé, Jacqueline Rousseaux, Mohamed Ouriaghli, Mohammadi Chahid, Ahmed Mouhssin, Members of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium; Safia Djibril, Member of the Parliament, Djibouti.
Please visit the website www.banfgm.org for further information on the campaign as well as the complete list of signatories to date.
For more information, contact Alvilda Jablonko, Coordinator of the FGM Program, on ajablonko@npwj.org / phone: +32 494 533 915 or Nicola Giovannini on ngiovannini@npwj.org or +32 (0)2 548-39 15.
