On 12 May 2015, No Peace Without Justice, in partnership with La Palabre, COSEPRAT, FemnetSenegal, the Association des Juristes Senegalaises and  the Inter-African Committee for Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children  (IAC), convened a national workshop in Dakar, Senegal, aimed at fostering the implementation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 69/150 calling for a worldwide ban on female genital mutilation.

The workshop was held under the high patronage of the Ministry of Women, Family and Childhood of Senegal and was organised with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and UNICEF. Participants included high-level government representatives, parliamentarians and civil society activists from Senegal as well as representatives of UN agencies and other international organisations and diplomatic missions.

In addition to aiming to consolidate the political will of Senegalese authorities to implement Resolution 69/150, the workshop provided an opportunity to analyse and discuss national mechanisms designed to protect women and girls against FGM and to identify adequate measures to improve existing strategies addressing violations of the prohibition of FGM and build the capacity of the police, gendarmerie and the judiciary in ensuring compliance with the law.

The Senegalese law banning FGM dates to 1999, and furthermore, the Constitution of 22 January 2001 establishes that the right to the integrity of the person must be guaranteed and protected, notably against any form of physical mutilation. Similarly to other countries in which FGM is committed, 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 its medicalisation, as well as the strict and effective enforcement of the 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 Gender & Human Rights Program activities
• Final Declaration of the national workshop (in French)

Press review:

• Elimination des mutilations génitales féminines : La Déclaration de Dakar en gestation, Le Quotidien (Sénégal), 13 mai 2015
• Croisade contre les mutilations génitales : Diverses organisations de la Société civiles en concertation à Dakar, Saër Dial & Idrissa Diop Idy, L’Actuacho, 13 mai 2015
• Plaidoyer pour l’élimination des mutilations génitales féminines, Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (APS), 12 mai 2015

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.