On 10-11 February 2015, No Peace Without Justice, in partnership with the Association pour la promotion de l’égalité de genre et des droits humains (APEDH) and the Inter-African Committee for Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children  (IAC), is convening a national workshop in Nouakchott, Mauritania, 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 organised with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Participants include high-level government representatives, parliamentarians and civil society activists from Mauritania 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 Mauritanian 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 the local mechanisms designed to protect women and girls against FGM as well as to identify challenges and perspectives for the adoption and effective enforcement of a specific law prohibiting this human rights violation.

Despite the years of awareness campaigns and various national action plans implemented by the government to promote the elimination of FGM, prevalence in Mauritania remains high, with an estimated 72% of women and girls who have undergone the practice. 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 adoption and effective enactment of a law prohibiting FGM, to protect its victims and to hold perpetrators to account.
Documentation:

• Program of the national workshop (in French)
• 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.