Today marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, a day when we reaffirm our strong commitment to bring an end to one of the most serious and wide-scale violation of the rights of women and girls. No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) and the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT) celebrate this important day together with our partners around the world, including in Ivory Coast where a ceremony, with the theme: « Mobilization and involvement of health professionals to accelerate the elimination of FGM», will be held.

Declaration by Alvilda Jablonko, Gender and Human Rights Program Coordinator of No Peace Without Justice:

“On this International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, No Peace without Justice (NPWJ) and the Nonviolent Radical Party Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT) take the occasion to congratulate all the outstanding individuals and organizations who battle this human rights violation every day for the remarkable advances we have seen over the past year.

“Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a human rights violation and an extreme form of discrimination and violence against women and girls, which three million girls worldwide are at risk of undergoing every year. In December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 69/150 condemning this human rights violation, renewing a commitment taken with the first historic Resolution 67/146 on the matter in 2012, with an increased number of sponsoring countries and strengthened language.

“This year has also seen milestones in the application of the law. The first trial of an FGM case in Egypt resulted in the conviction of the doctor who committed the violation, as well as of the father who had procured his daughter for the mutilation.  This outcome sends a strong message in Egypt and worldwide that the medicalization of FGM can provide no alibi to perpetrators. As the medicalisation of FGM is one of the biggest – and growing – risks to its elimination, giving an aura of legitimacy to this human rights violation, the trial in Egypt is a significant step forward in the fight against FGM.

“NPWJ and the NRPTT have constantly stressed that the adoption and the enforcement of explicit and effective legislation, backed by sanctions, banning all forms of FGM are fundamental and crucial factors to successfully combat this human rights violation and promote its elimination. In addition to holding perpetrators to account, legislation protects and provides the legal tools for women and girls willing to challenge the social convention by refusing to undergo FGM, and also establishes the legal environment that legitimizes and facilitates the work of anti-FGM activists and women’s rights groups.

“On this important day when we mark the victories of the past year, it is also important to note that the majority of countries worldwide still lack legislation to protect women and girls; where laws have been enacted, political will to implement them effectively has not always followed. NPWJ and the NRPTT appeal to all states in which FGM is perpetrated to enact and enforce legislation to unequivocally prohibit FGM as well as to provide strong and clear support for the innumerable human rights groups, women’s associations and individual advocates that fight a daily battle to bring an end to this human rights violation”.

Useful links:

• National Workshop in Ivory Coast to foster effective implementation of UNGA resolution banning Female Genital Mutilation, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 4-5 February 2015
• “IV Jornadas Internacionales MGF: Respuestas para la prevención y la erradicación”, Madrid, 5-6 February 2015
• Ban FGM Campaign
• NPWJ Gender and Human Rights Program activities
• Read the UN Resolution (A/RES/67/146) in: English ,  French

For more information, contact Alvilda Jablonko, Coordinator of the Gender and Human Rights Program, on ajablonko@npwj.org, phone: +32 494 533 915 or Nicola Giovannini, email: ngiovannini@npwj.org, phone: +32 2 548 39 15.