The High-Level Meeting “Cairo Declaration on FGM +5”, organized jointly by the No Peace Without Justice and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) and under the patronage of first lady Suzanne Mubarak, with the support of Italian Cooperation, the World Bank and the involvement of UN agencies involved in the fight against FGM, concluded today with the adoption by consensus of a Final Declaration stressing the need to foster a transnational political mobilisation for the elimination of FGM.
The scope of this high-level meeting, which was attended by the First Lady of Burkina Faso, H.E. Mrs Chantal Compaoré, as well as ministers, parliamentarians, civil society representatives from 20 of the 28 Afro-Arab countries concerned by the practice, was to take stock of the positive developments that have been achieved in many countries, as well as to develop common strategies to tackle the new challenges that the fight against FGM must face, both nationally and regionally. One of the most critical issue that is emerging is the increasing cross-border and regional aspect to the practice, alongside an increasing global dimension, as people from countries where FGM is practiced continue to do so when they settle in other countries. This emerging issue needs to be tackled at the local, national, regional and global level using a comprehensive and multidisciplinary human rights approach and in a way that is consistent and coherent.
The participants decided to commit to hold a meeting over the next twelve months, in order to assess further the implementation of the recommendations made in the course of the meeting and all other efforts to address FGM through a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach anchored within a human rights framework that promotes behaviour change, using legislative measures as a pivotal tool; as well as to devise coordinated actions in order to make further progress in the various countries affected by the practice, as well as at regional and global levels.
Statement by Emma Bonino, Vice President of the Italian Senate and founder of No Peace Without Justice:
“I think it is essential that the importance of the legal instrument in the fight against FGM is now accepted. Given the encouraging advances that have occurred from this regard over the past five years, we must redouble our efforts. We have to keep the momentum going and redouble our efforts, so that ending FGM by outlawing it once and for all is not only a goal we can achieve, it is a goal that we will achieve”.
For further information, please contact: Nicola Giovannini, email: ngiovannini@npwj.org – tel: + 32 2 548 39 14.
