The Inter-parliamentary Conference on Female Genital Cutting (FGC) took place in Dakar, Senegal on May 3-4. The gathering of African and international leaders presented an opportunity to reflect upon past legal successes in protecting human rights in Africa and served as a platform from which to draft a resolution encouraging the total abandonment of FGC on the African continent. A step forward in a global effort to abandon the harmful traditional practice, the final declaration calls for the adoption of a UN resolution banning FGC within a year.
More information on the conference and the resolution can be found here on the website of No Peace Without Justice, one of the sponsors of the conference.
Read the full text of the Dakar Declaration for a United Nations Ban on Female Genital Cutting here.
Photo by Cemre Yesil