Opening remarks delivered by Italy at the Side Event on”Accelerating the End of Harmful Practices to Reap the Demographic Dividend in Africa” —
Ladies and Gentleman,
First of all, let me thank the Authorities and the Organizations which made this event possible
We confirm our commitment to the elimination of FGM, of harmful practices, contributing to creating the necessary conditions for the achievement of target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Together with other Countries, many of them are here today, we are at the forefront of the international campaign for the eradication of FGMn, in international multilateral forums, in bilateral relations with our partners.
We participate in the negotiations on the biennial resolutions on FGM and CEFM in New York and in the Geneva Council Assembly, and we always try to maintaina balanced and constructive approach. Moreover, harmful practices are the object of specific recommendations addressed by Italy to third countries in the context of the EU Universal Periodic Review.
The Italian Development Cooperation has been contributing, since 2008, to eradicating FGM by funding of the Joint UNFPA/UNICEF Program “Female Genital Mutilation / Cutting: Accelerating Change”, with allocation of almost 17 million dollars up to last year.
For this year, I can confirm Italy’s commitment to keep financial support to this initiative at the same level.
I would also like to recall the BanFGM project, which aims to contribute to the elimination of FGM in the Countries of intervention,
I would like to underline that Italy is addressing this issue not only in target Countries but also internally through our domestic policies.
In this regard, our Department for Equal Opportunities launched specific guidelines to support social operators – in intercepting at-risk situations and successfully handling them, even in times of emergency, to guarantee assistance and protection to women immigrants.
Furthermore, within the framework of the Italy’s National Strategic Plan on Male Violence against Women specific attention is dedicated to “taking charge of victims of FGM”.
We believe that, in order to accelerate and intensify our action to eliminate these practices our awareness-raising in the public and private contexts is crucial. To this end, we need to keep the focus on the strong relationship between harmful practices, gender inequality and violence against women, which can be effectively fought only through integrated policies, able to facilitate change both at the legal and social levels.
Thank you for your attention.
