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Replace Fgm E-Bulletin Issue IV, June 2011 REPLACE FGM E-BULLETIN Dear readers, We are delighted to send through the final e- bulletin of the REPLACE FGM Daphne III project which for this initial pilot stage is drawing to a close. It has been a wonderful opportunity to work with our project partners: FSAN – the Federation of Somali Associations based in Amsterdam in the In This Issue Netherlands and FORWARD UK in London, who, with their researchers, have worked REPLACE FGM incredibly diligently to obtain insightful and data on the beliefs and perspectives launches a new pilot regarding FGM from individuals from the Somali and Sudanese communities. This data Toolkit has been analysed by the Coventry University team to produce a pilot Toolkit ‘Replacing REPLACE FGM Final Approaches to Ending FGM in the EU: Implementing Behaviour Change with conference Practising Communities’ which is available to download here on the REPLACE FGM REPLACE FGM Policy website. The new pilot Toolkit was presented at our final conference (see below) to an Recommendations audience of NGOs and European policy- makers on 25th May 2011 in Brussels, which was organised by our Belgium partner West Midlands European Centre. Partners We have many individuals and organisations to thank for their help in supporting the project, but in particular we would like to thank Liz Lynne MEP, 1st Vice President of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament for her encouragement to aim high with the European policy recommendations. We would like to thank Pierrette Pape, Policy Officer & Project Coordinator at the European Women’s Lobby and Dr. Christine Loudes, Campaign Director for the END FGM Campaign at Amnesty International who have both offered considerable support and have shown outstanding leadership in leading a campaign for a Violence Against Women Strategy and specific FGM legislative proposals which, although promised, have yet to be put forward by the European Commission. Finally we would like to thank the Daphne III Unit in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Freedom for funding this research project. Without their financial support this project would not have been possible. We News look forward to seeing the REPLACE toolkit on the Daphne Toolkit website and to REPLACE consortium attend th developing a new research proposal for the Amnesty International’s 50 next Call for projects. anniversary event in the European Parliament in Brussels on 24th May Professor Hazel Barrett, Principal Investigator 2011 [READ MORE] for REPLACE FGM REPLACE attends Walking Africa deserves a Nobel campaign event [READ MORE] REPLACE FGM launches a Policy Update new pilot Toolkit for Replacing Approaches to European Commission ensures Ending FGM in the EU: better protection of crime victims: Implementing Behaviour On 7 April 2011, the Committee of Change with Practising Ministers of the Council of Europe Communities adopted of a landmark new Convention on preventing and Launched on 25th May 2011 at the project’s combating violence against women final conference in Brussels, the Toolkit, and domestic violence. available to download here (in its entirety and in its specific sections), is designed to [READ MORE] introduce a behaviour change approache to 18 May 2011 those working to end FGM amongst practising communities in the EU. This approach replaces the dominant approaches to eliminating FGM, which focus primarily on Council of Europe Convention on raising awareness of the health, legal and preventing and combating violence human rights issues associated with the against women and domestic practice and then expecting individuals to violence change their behaviour concerning FGM. The behaviour change approach helps individuals and communities through a series of steps or [READ MORE] stages which enable changes in behaviour to 7 April 2011 become sustainable and thus change community norms. The toolkit is grounded in participatory action research with Somali and Sudanese Contact communities in the Netherlands and the UK. It is hoped that this toolkit and the behaviour Dr. David Beecham change approach it advocates will be relevant Coventry University to other practising communities across the Postdoctoral Research Assistant EU. However, we recommend that before any [email protected] behaviour change intervention is devised and www.REPLACEFGM.eu implemented, that research is undertaken with the communities you plan to work with, or are working with, to determine what the belief systems are concerning FGM and what barriers there are to ending FGM within that community. 30 copies have been printed and will be distributed to key anti-FGM organisations across Europe working closely with practising communities. [READ MORE & DOWNLOAD THE TOOLKIT] REPLACE FGM Final conference Timed to coincide with the publication of the European Victim’s Package, the REPLACE finalconference aimed to bring together a rich mix of NGOs, community organisations, policy-makers, politicians, researchers and other relevant stakeholders. We were delighted to receive a statement from Liz Lynne MEP, 1st Vice President of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament who congratulated the project partners for ‘our amazing hard work to help make this project a reality’ and spoke of REPLACE as a ‘testament of how we can utilise EU money to make a real difference to people's lives’. Liz Lynne MEP reminded us that in April 2009, 647 MEPs voted in favour of a European Parliament non- legislative resolution on combating FGM, which roundly condemns FGM as a violation of fundamental human rights. We would like to thank all MEPs for working to keep the issue a political priority and raise awareness. The event will also be remembered for the exciting and stimulating discussion amongst all the participants who debated and discussed the challenges and opportunities ahead for ending FGM in Europe. We would like to thank everyone for their valuable time in attending the event. [Read MORE] REPLACE FGM Policy Recommendations Ending FGM in Europe will remain a major policy challenge in Europe if behaviour change approaches are not implemented. The REPLACE approach aimed to get to grips with the reality of a complex weave of individual and community level decisions and behaviours that can be different across countries, cultures and language contexts. As a result of this project and our connections with other European networks we have put forward seven policy recommendations on ending FGM in Europe. To read the "seven REPLACE FGM policy recommedations" in full click here. The responsibility for the content of this webpage lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. www.REPLACEFGM.eu [email protected] .
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