Sonia Núñez Puente participates in several projects for the eradication of Female Genital Mutilation

Sonia Núñez Puente, director of the i+d project of Rey Juan Carlos University, is responsible for gender and communication of the research team of the “Multi-sectorial academic program to prevent and combat Female Genital Mutilation (FGM/C)” funded by the Daphne Program of the European Commission and directed by Laura Nuño, Professor at Rey Juan Carlos University (2016-2018). It is an innovative project designed to sensitize, educate and train future professionals in contact with possible victims of Female Genital Mutilation in the European Union.

To this end, a multidisciplinary team of faculty and research staff – including the PI and project member Diana Fernández Romero – has developed a Multisector Academic Training Guide, which is available in 6 languages. This guide aims to facilitate the incorporation into the university curricula of the four countries involved (Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium) the knowledge necessary to prevent and eliminate this practice that harms the human rights of women and girls, with special emphasis upon its socio-cultural aspects.

The program involves 26 researchers from the following institutions: URJC, Wassu Foundation – UAB of Catalonia, Roma Tre and Fondazzone Angello Celli in Italy, the Center for International Studies of ISCTE-IUL in Portugal and Belgium’s Vrij Universiteit Brussels.

The PI participated in a meeting held in Rome between September 21 and 23, 2016, at the Faculty of Political Science of the Roma Tre University to work on the contents of the guide.

Also on the same topic, the PI contributed to the coordination of the “I International MAP-FGM International Seminar on Socio-cultural and Legal Aspects of Female Genital Mutilation: Transnational Experiences of Prevention and Protection” held on February 3-4, 2017, in Madrid. In this meeting she coordinated the thematic table on “Feminist approaches to FGM/C”.