On 4-5 February 2015, No Peace Without Justice, 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), is convening 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 is being held under the high patronage of the Minister of National Solidarity, Family, Woman and Children affairs and the First Vice-President of the National Assembly of Ivory Coast, and organised with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The event will be followed by a ceremony on the occasion of the International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM, 6 February 2015, with the theme: « Mobilization and involvement of health professionals to accelerate the elimination of FGM».

Participants include 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 will provide 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 has 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 and to build the capacity of the police, gendarmerie and the judiciary in ensuring compliance with the law.

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:

• Concept Note of the national workshop (in French)
• Ban FGM Campaign
• NPWJ FGM Program activities
• Final Declaration of the national workshop (in French)
• 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.