Reflections on the Adoption of UNGA Resolution Banning Female Genital Mutilation
On December 20, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Resolution “Intensifying global efforts for the elimination of female genital mutilations.” The passage of the resolution is the culmination of a decade of work by activist women around the world with the support of a number of African and Arab NGOs, civil society, and governments. This resolution is a very important step in the history of the women’s movement in the MENA region, especially at a time when women’s role and rights are being marginalized in a number of Arab countries. In Egypt, Moushira Khattab was the principle architect of laws criminalizing the practice of female genital mutilation.
About the Author
Moushira Khattab
First Vice Chair of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; Former Ambassador of Egypt to South Africa and to the Federal Republic of Czechoslovakia; and Former Egyptian Minister of Family and Population
Middle East Program
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The Global Women’s Leadership Initiative has hosted the Women in Public Service Project at the Wilson Center since June, 2012. The Women in Public Service Project will accelerate global progress towards women’s equal participation in policy and political leadership to create more dynamic and inclusive institutions that leverage the full potential of the world’s population to change the way global solutions are forged. Read more