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Addressee: UNICEF, UNFPA
Full Text
The Permanent Forum commends UNICEF and UNFPA for their work to combat female genital mutilation practices and urges them to continue their efforts with indigenous peoples and their communities.
Responses
The UNFPA – UNICEF Joint Programme to Accelerate Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), established in 2008, in the past biennium has intensified its activities in promoting the abandonment of FGM/C in 15 countries (Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda). It promotes and supports a multi-disciplinary, comprehensive, coordinated and coherent approach at all levels which is required for achieving abandonment of FGM/C worldwide. The approach recognizes that FGM/C operates as a social norm. It therefore takes into account the degree of support for FGM/C within practicing communities and in the country as a whole, and adapts specific strategies to country-specific realities. Experience gained among the 15 countries was disseminated by the agencies to inform the global movement to end the practice, including to countries not covered by the programme and to countries with communities of immigration. This was done, inter alia, by providing support to Member States in the organization of special events during the 2010 and 2011 United Nations General Assembly and Commission on the Status of Women sessions. This included providing technical support to the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, in the drafting of a new joint General Comment/Recommendation on harmful practices. It also included participation in national and international conferences such as those organized by the Inter-African Committee on Harmful Traditional Practices, on the occasion of the Day of No Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. This has contributed to the increased concurrence among governments and civil society that FGM/C is a deeply entrenched social practice and that ending the practice requires a holistic and respectful approach that stimulates and promotes societal support for its abandonment, and includes the provision of appropriate services for those affected by the practice. This approach also fosters dialogue about shared values and practices that support the rights of girls, and builds on these to create consensus about ending FGM/C. The Joint Programme has been extended by one year to December 2013 to allow countries additional time to implement activities. This also enables the agencies to invest greater resources on the monitoring, assessment and evaluation of the results of the programme’s activities. The global evaluation of the programme will be conducted with UNFPA in 2013.
Final Report of UNPFII Session 10 (2011)
Area of Work
