The formal adoption today of the draft resolution is the result of years of advocacy efforts to bring worldwide attention to the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM), spearheaded by an ever-expanding Ban FGM Coalition, composed of No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ), the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC), Euronet-FGM, and the NGOs La Palabre, Manifesto 99 and Equality Now.
Statement by Alvilda Jablonko, Coordinator of the FGM Program of No Peace Without Justice:
“No Peace Without Justice and the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty, together with their partners in the International NGO Coalition to Ban FGM Worldwide, applaud the formal adoption by the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly of a draft resolution on female genital mutilation, which signals a landmark step in the international campaign to foster global leadership in the fight against FGM as a wide-scale and blatant violation of the fundamental human rights of women and girls.
“The text adopted today is an essential contribution to the United Nations General Assembly addressing this human rights violation as a global issue affecting the daily lives of women and girls worldwide.
“Notably, the draft resolution urges States to ‘condemn all harmful practices that affect women and girls, in particular female genital mutilations, and to take all necessary measures, including enacting and enforcing legislation to prohibit female genital mutilations and to protect women and girls from this forms of violence, and to end impunity’.
“We look forward to the adoption of this pivotal instrument by the United Nations General Assembly, in December this year, which would demonstrate the strong commitment of the international community to support the actions of those Member States and activists which have been at the forefront of the battle to challenge and put an end to this human rights violation both nationally and, increasingly, internationally”.
Ban FGM Campaign
Over the past years, the members of the Ban FGM Coalition have collaborated on several initiatives to raise awareness internationally about the need for a UNGA Resolution banning this human rights violation, gathering the support of human rights activists, women’s organizations, parliamentarians and government representatives from throughout Africa and Europe.
Tangible momentum towards a Resolution has been gathering speed over this past year. A key step in the process was the July 2011 AU Assembly Decision by the Heads of State and Government of the African Union in support of a Resolution by the General Assembly.
The African Group at the UN took action to implement the will of the Heads of State by introducing a CSW Decision at the Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2012, recommending that the issue of FGM, until now discussed only within the context of the CSW, be formally considered by the General Assembly under the agenda item “Advancement of Women”. In July 2012, the ECOSOC adopted the CSW recommendation and requested that the issue of female genital mutilation be added to the agenda of the 67th General Assembly.
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.
