On 16-17 January 2018, No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ), in partnership with the Fondation Djigui la Grande Espérance and the Inter-African Committee for Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children  (IAC-CIAF), convened a national workshop in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, aimed at fostering the implementation of the resolution calling for a worldwide ban on female genital mutilation (A/RES/67/146), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on 20 December 2012.

The meeting was held under the high patronage of the Minister of National Solidarity, Woman and Children affairs and organised with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The event is part of a wider awareness campaign against female genital mutilation, called “BanFGM”, carried out by NPWJ in seven West African countries and supported by a co-funding of the AVSI Foundation.

Participants included high-level government representatives, parliamentarians and civil society activists from Ivory Coast as well as representatives of UN agencies and other international organisations. The workshop provided an opportunity to consolidate the full-fledged involvement and commitment of Ivory Coast political authorities in favor of the implementation of the UNGA resolution explicitly banning FGM as a violation of the human rights of women and girls. The workshop had also among its specific objectives to discuss and analyse the local mechanisms designed to protect women and girls against FGM, to identify adequate measures to improve existing strategies addressing violations of the prohibition of FGM.

Despite the years of awareness campaigns to promote the elimination of FGM, prevalence in Ivory Coast remains at 38 %, according to the 2011-2012 National Demographic and Health Survey. The fight against this human rights violation requires enhanced cooperation and synergy of action among all institutions and civil society organisations focused on FGM, including work to prevent and condemn the rise of the medicalisation of FGM, as well as the strict and effective enforcement of the 1998 law prohibiting FGM, to protect its victims and to hold perpetrators to account.

Documentation:

• Final declaration (in French)
• Recommendations adopted (in French)
• Concept Note and program of the national workshop (in French)
• Ban FGM Campaign
• NPWJ FGM Program activities
• Read the UN Resolution (A/RES/67/146) in: English , French

For more information, contact Nicola Giovannini, email: ngiovannini@npwj.org.