IAC and its National Committees in Africa and Group Sections in Europe, USA, Canada, Japan and New Zealand celebrate the 6th of February as the International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM.
The 6th of February has been adopted by the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights as the International Day on Zero Tolerance to FGM, after the day was chosen during the International Conference on Zero Tolerance to FGM in Addis Ababa in 2003.
The official Declaration on "Zero Tolerance to FGM" on the African Continent was made by the First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo during the conference, in the following text:
Excellencies,
Honourable Ministers,
Wives of Heads of State,
Honourable Hosts of the International Community,
Donor Agencies,
Honourable participants,
The last three days have seen us deliberating on the issue of FGM and other Harmful Traditional Practices, affecting the Health of Women and Children on the continent. We have shared experiences, best practices and various strategies of National Committees as well as the intervention areas of our collaborators within the international community. It is quite clear now that a lot of energy has been put into the campaign against FGM since the early 1930s to date.
It is also heartening to note that Harmful Traditional Practices in general and Female Genital Mutilation in particular, are receiving gradual, regional and international community's joint statement to declare a common position to fight FGM. At the regional level we have the ECA and AU giving us support and the Human Rights of Women being taken on board on the elimination of FGM, in the continent and within the framework of the African Charter. At the regional level we have the establishment of our National Committees that are involved at the community level to fight FGM. I congratulate us for all the efforts made by different actors to eliminate the practice of FGM.
However, IAC has come to a stage where a paradigm shift would move the gains we have made so far by having a Common Agenda which will provide a common framework to intensify and collaborate our activities at the different levels while respecting our diversities. In the light of this, IAC has decided to declare 6th February of every year The Day of "Zero Tolerance of FGM". The zero tolerance forum will be an initiative which will bring all our efforts to celebrate, reflect and deliberate on FGM, and to renew our commitment to liberate African Women from cultural and traditional belief systems that are inimical to the sexual and reproductive rights of women in the continent. We are together in this with our sisters and brothers in the Diaspora whose efforts we wish to recognize.
Our role as wives of Heads of State on the African Continent will be to give our support and influence our husbands, brothers and other strategic allies to adopt a "Zero Tolerance to FGM". We, as wives of Heads of State in the Continent, wish to express appreciation to the IAC for being the pioneers of "Zero Tolerance to FGM", and would like to immediately play our role. In the light of this, I would like to, on behalf of all Wives of Heads of State on the African Continent;
- Call on all members to adopt a "Zero Tolerance to FGM"
- Provide the political, economic and social environment to our National Committees to enable them to work effectively;
- Urge our Member States to provide funding for the IAC and its National Committees to fulfill the objective of "Zero Tolerance to FGM"
- Encourage donors to give much attention to funding the National Committees to realize the objectives of their activities which will eventually lead to the realization of "Zero Tolerance to FGM"
I, Chief (Mrs.) Stella Obasanjo, First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on behalf of all the First Ladies of Africa, hereby append my signature on this day, 6th of February 2003, as The Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM".
Once again I say a big thank you to all those who, in one-way or the other have made this initiative a success.
Signed on this day February 6th, 2003 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Chief Mrs. Stella Obasanjo
First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
