Launch of guide on the Istanbul Convention

The END FGM European Campaign were keynote speakers at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting 2014 Side Event on the Istanbul Convention as a tool to end female genital mutilation held in Warsaw on 2 October 2014.

The OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting 2014 began on 22nd September and ran until 3rd October. It is Europe's largest annual human rights and democracy conference and is organised every year by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) as a platform for 57 OSCE participating States, Partners for Co-operation, civil society, international organizations and OSCE structures to take stock of the implementation of the human dimension commitments, discuss associated challenges, share good practices and make recommendations for further improvements.

The Side Event presented the added value of the Istanbul Convention in combating FGM and launched a new guide on using the Istanbul Convention as a tool to end FGM, which was jointly written by the END FGM European Campaign and the Council of Europe. This new publication offers policy makers and advocates important guidance on how the provisions of the Istanbul Convention can and should be applied to put an end to this harmful practice – in Europe and beyond.

Our advocacy officer Elise Petitpas was joined by Aissatou Diallo, an anti-FGM activist from Belgium and by government and UNHCR representatives to discuss how the Istanbul Convention can be used as a tool to end female genital mutilation.

We'll be covering the event on Facebook and Twitter, using the handle #HDIM2014 .

Read more about the side event here .
Read more about the OSCE event here .
Read Aissatou Diallo's speech here.