No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) and several African partners of the international campaign for the adoption of a United Nations General Assembly Resolution banning Female Genital Mutilation will be hosted by Minister Elisabetta Belloni (DG Development Cooperation) and Emanuela Tripura (Deputy Head of Cabinet, Department of Equal Opportunities) at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This meeting is an opportunity for the Italian government to meet key players from African civil society, discussing with them the next steps to reach the common goal of a worldwide ban on FGM.
These activists have been involved since long time in the fight against FGM: Mariam Lamizana (Burkina Faso, President of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Harmful Practices (IAC), former Minister of Social Action and National Solidarity of Burkina Faso), Khady Koita (Senegal, one of the most active anti-FGM militant, author of the book “Mutilated “, founder and president of La Palabre, awarded this year with the Rome Prize for Peace and Humanitarian Action), Rahim Kamara (Sierra Leone, Director of the organization Manifesto 99), Comfort Effiom (Cameroon, Director of the Inter-African Committee in Cameroon), Khadidia Sidibé (Mali, President of the Association Malienne pour le suivi et l’orientation des pratiques traditionnelles, who had a leadership role in the battle for the ratification and implementation of the Maputo Protocol in Africa). ForNo Peace Without Justice will intervene Alvilda Jablonko, FGM program coordinator. A press conference will follow the meeting, which is scheduled for 12 am in the Room Onofri at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The meeting comes in a particularly intense moment of the international campaign caling for a UNGA Resolution on FGM. On 21 February, the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will open at the United Nations in New York. No Peace Without Justice, together with IAC and other partners of the campaign, will take part in the discussions, reiterating the request of a strong commitment by governments and the international community to ban FGM as a violation of universal human rights and physical integrity of women and girls.
Over the last year, NPWJ, IAC, Euronet-FGM and the association La Palabre have promoted several initiatives to raise awareness at international level on the need of a UNGA resolution, supported by African activists, parliamentarians and governments, as well as by the Italian Government. The international day “Zero Tolerance” on FGM (February the 6th) was celebrated also in Italy, in the presence of several members of the Government, with the launch of the communication campaign “Decidi tu che segno lasciare” (www.noncepacesenzagiustizia.org ), now disseminated in press and television, aiming to increase the mobilization supporting the resolution as well as to give concrete support to those who dedicate and sometimes risk their lives, to ensure that next generations do not suffer the practice of FGM anymore.
Read the news reported by ANSA Press Agency
For further information, contact Carla Caraccio, 06.68979261, ccaraccio@npwj.org
www.noncepacesenzagiustizia.org – www.banfgm.org/IT
