Advocacy Toolkit on Beijing Platform for Action Implementation

The aim of this Toolkit is to support national advocacy in light of the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adoption and to analyse progress made.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a matter of gender equality was addressed in the Beijing Platform for Action, both specifically and within all forms of gender-based violence, in several critical areas of concern, namely: women and health, violence against women, human rights of women and the girl child. Each critical area includes strategic objectives followed by specific actions to be taken by governments (and other key actors). As such, this user-friendly Toolkit was created to highlight what governments agreed to do 25 years ago, related to FGM.

You are invited to use this Toolkit to approach your governments with the questions listed in the right column of the table. At national level, advocacy targets to whom you will ask these questions will differ based on the country concerned and their government departments, but they will certainly include: ministries of education, health, equal opportunities, justice, finance, research and interior. Moreover, you can also approach universities, schools, hospitals and professionals in different sectors to enquire on whether they have complied with commitments of the Beijing Declaration.

It is high time to reiterate commitment to that progressive set of actions and to hold our governments and institutions accountable for what they agreed to do for women’s rights 25 years ago.