The Government of Catalonia joins the Girl Summit Campaign to support the international global task of eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM). It has committed itself to implement a gender human rights based approach in all public policies to transform inequalities among women and men.
 
On behalf of the Government of Catalonia, the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation will adopt women’s human rights as a main objective in cooperation development policies.  This strategy is based on the Convention to Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and international commitments were reaffirmed at the  Beijing+20 - Beijing Platform for Action.
 
Catalan cooperation works to promote women’s health rights, especially the right to their own bodies and sexual and reproductive rights as a specific goal. It will also focus on a woman’s right to live a life free from violence. With this aim, the Government of Catalonia will assume the following commitments:
 
  1.  Enhance the Governmental Protocol for FGM prevention in Catalonia under the FGM Working Group. This Working Group was created in 2001 with the mandate of designing an action plan to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and will develop the following actions:
    • Strengthen the capacities of those professionals involved in identifying and preventing FGM
    • Raise the Protocol’s community based approach in order to involve local associations which work against this practice both in Catalonia and in the countries of origin
  2. In the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the conference entitled "Women’s Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights: a Transnational View of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)" will be organised. The conference will focus on increasing awareness among professionals involved in the prevention of FGM as well as the immigrant community in Catalonia. Delegates from African organizations, “Tostan” and “Association des Juristes Sénégalaises” will act as guest speakers for the conference
  3. Advocacy on parliamentary action to adopt awareness-raising positions on FGM and the promotion of measures to eradicate it within the international human rights framework. Moreover, the capacities of parliamentary working groups on FGM eradication will be strengthened
  4. Setting up partnerships with women’s rights associations
  5. Awareness-raising on FGM will be addressed to Catalan society in order to prevent and eradicate this practice
  6. Specific funding support:
    • €783,000: “Social, economic and political empowerment of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist women in the Somali region, Ethiopia”, Intermón Oxfam
    • €805,000: “Women of Mali: sexual and reproductive rights of women, the Republic of Mali”, Cooperacció