Press Release: International Women’s Day: Zero tolerance for female genital mutilation

Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2013, European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding and Commissioner Cecilia Malmström joined human rights campaigners on 6 March 2013 to call for zero tolerance for female genital mutilation (FGM). The Commission organised a high-level roundtable event to discuss how the European Union can help Member States to eradicate the practice – thought to have affected several hundred thousand women in the EU. The Commissioners were joined by Members of the European Parliament and the world’s leading anti-FGM campaigners, including ‘desert flower’ Waris Dirie, Khady Koita and Chantal Compaoré – First Lady of Burkina Faso.

• Primary Source

European Commission: Rapid: IP/12/1066: Putting victims first: New European law improving rights for victims of crime has been adopted http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1066_en.htm

ESO: Background Information: EIGE’s study on female genital mutilation yields the first EU-wide map on the situation of FGM http://www.europeansources.info/record/eiges-study-on-female-genital-mutilation-yields-the-first-eu-wide-map-on-the-situation-of-fgm/

---