Pan European Conference: Knowledge Exchange on Promising Practices for Engaging Communities to end FGM & VAWG
Who should attend this event?
The event is tailored for statutory professionals, Local Government Authorities, voluntary organisations, young women, community representatives, and organisations working on FGM from the UK and Europe.
Engagement of key communities is crucial to effectively ending female genital mutilation (FGM) and all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG). Social norms and traditions that fuel VAWG can only be effectively tackled with support from communities themselves. A grassroots peer-to-peer approach has greater impact in the long- term abandonment of VAWG. Community engagement and preventative action should form part of the package on protection, provisioning and prosecution policy approaches.
Ending violence against women and girls and harmful practices such as FGM, forced and child marriage in the UK is critical to attaining the Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. These human rights violations affect many communities living in UK and Europe and require community voices to effectively end them. The European Union and the UK government are committed to actions to end these violations.
In 2015, the UK Serious Crimes Act of 2015, introduced stricter legislation aimed at safeguarding and protecting girls from FGM and new measures for tackling forced marriage. This included mandatory reporting duties for FGM, protection orders, as well as making failure to protect daughters from FGM a criminal offence. These actions require an active role of key communities.
Download the conference booklet for the agenda and full information
Conference Aims:
The conference aims to provide a platform for exchange of promising practices on tackling FGM and VAWG and will enable key professionals and stakeholders to improve their understanding of the critical role of community engagement and representation in shifting attitudes, how to reach communities and engage young people on activism, as well as building bridges with policy makers and communities. This event targets key statutory professionals and frontline workers including local and national government authorities, and other key stakeholders.
Why should you attend this event?
- Understand effective strategies for engaging communities to tackle FGM and VAWG
- Explore promising approaches for building bridges between statutory professionals and affected communities
- Understand the role of developing leadership and intergenerational working
- Meet community champions and youth leaders and hear about their social action projects
- Network with key stakeholders and European counterparts working on FGM & VAWG
- Access new resources and tools for engaging communities
