Source: European Parliamentarians with Africa While it is a recognised universal fact that eliminating gender inequality and achieving women’s empowerment are paramount to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, progress with implementation of the MDGs is the slowest in those areas that depend most heavily on improving the status of women and girls.
Therefore on the occasion of the Belgian EU Presidency, the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) saw the opportunity to further its aim to help speed up implementation of these vital goals.
The seminar titled “Uniting parliamentary efforts to end violence against women in Africa” was an excellent opportunity to have an open discussion about the important role parliaments can and do play in ending violence against women in Africa.
Besides being an opportunity to learn, meet and develop new projects, this seminar also served as a base for a parliamentary resolution (see conclusions of this seminar) and two parliamentary guidelines on FGM/C and UNSC Resolutions 1325.
We hope you find this booklet useful as a guide which gathers knowledge and experiences shared by high-level specialists with a special focus on women’s rights in conflict areas and the abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), demonstrating that effective actions can be taken to end violence against women.