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(women from the outside) phenomenon: women are easily bought just like commodities with a price range between 50 and 900 dollars; the younger the girl, the higher the price.

According to UNIFEM, 45,000 “Paros” have been sold in and around Haryana (India) in

2006 alone.

UNICEF.17 has warned that “the alarming decline in the child sex-ratio is likely to result in more girls being married at a younger age, more girls dropping out of education, increased mortality as a result of early child bearing and an associate increase in acts of violence against girls and women such as rape, abduction, trafficking and forced polyandry”.

16 Isabelle Attané, op. cit.

17 UNICEF, 2007 op.cit.

12 In a near future, we could see what Amin Maalouf describes in his book

“Today the social flaw of the male cult could become collective suicide”. We would therefore witness the “auto-genocide of the misogynous populations”

18.

III. POSITIVE INITIATIVES

Results in some countries are encouraging:

1. India

In 1994, India not only banned the misuse of ultrasound and other medical techniques but also condemned sex determination as a criminal offence.

Nevertheless, foeticide is still practiced due to the enormous family and social pressures to produce males. Moreover, they have only bolstered patriarchal values further undermining the status of women:

- Private clinics still openly advertise the services of sex determination.

- Obstetricians invest in mobile clinics with ultrasound equipment that can be driven into remote rural areas where the preference for male offspring runs high.

- Kits from the U.S. are available that allow women to know the sex of their baby in the comfort of their home.

- Abortion is so lucrative that many doctors do not want to see it curtailed. As a result, 11.2 million illegal abortions are performed each year off-the-record.

- Medical groups also argue that technology used to monitor foetal health – such as ultrasound scans and amniocentesis – cannot be put under such intense scrutiny.

- Officials in India say that the phenomenon has become uncontrollable. The reason may alsobe that “it suits so many people.”

In the district of Salem (Tamil Nadu), government schemes suggest that parents should not kill their unwanted girls but abandon them in cradles where 621 babies were left in 2005.

Amin Maalouf, Le Premier siècle après Béatrice, Grasset, Paris, 1992

19 According to Rohini Mohan, CNN IBN 2006

13

But charities feel this encourages people to throw away babies. In fact, how can such a system that reinforces son preference continue to be promoted?

Many poor families with girls in India were given financial incentives in the name of the infant girls. But like the “cradle baby” scheme, “girl protection schemes” were more the result of political plotting and, therefore, were short-lived even though girl child lives were spared because of those measures

On a more positive note, the Indian State Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda declared 2006 the Year of the Girl Child. He introduced an innovative incentive program called “Ladli” or the “adored one”, carrying an incentive of Rs 5000 ($100) per year for five years on the birth of a second daughter in a family. If a family has one daughter or only daughters,the parents would be entitled to get old age allowance of Rs300 ($6) per month after the ageof 55. Financial perks are indeed alluring incentives

21.

Where NGOs accompany young mothers and their baby girls from birth to the age of 2 months, giving them food and support, mothers become attached to their daughters and insome places infanticide has decreased up to fifty percent within 10 years

22.

That is why organising “Support groups” with mothers from different backgrounds or ages (mothers in law, young brides, grand-mothers…) to discuss about the issue of the girl childappears to have a very positive impact.

However, the challenge remains:

Decades of policy efforts have not achieved positive change. In fact the worsening ratiosindicate that the situation is deteriorating rather than improving. Today, the focus of most

Indian government policies related to son preference has been on reducing sex-selective abortions, but with little or no result.

UNICEF

23 notes that while the pre-natal diagnostic testing legislation has been passed in

India, the enforcement is lagging with only one conviction to date.

20 Kirubhakaran, Social Welfare Program, 1993

21 Anuj Chopra, Gulf News, Weekend Review, 31 August 2006

22 Documentary broadcast on TV Channel ARTE: “La malédiction de naître fille” THEMA, 24 October 2006

23 UNICEF: op.ci

14 Female foeticide can be considered as a mass crime facilitated by the medical community.

Local initiatives by NGOs are to be encouraged as they do wonderful work on the ground and

have the ability to save many lives.

2. China

The program “Care for Girls” was launched by the State Population and Family PlanningCommission in 2003 in 24 pilot countries. This program provides social benefits, including cash payments, to families with only girls in order to enhance the status of girls and women.

Through such measures, some Chinese families have come out of poverty as they are entitled to accommodation and pensions when they get old. These families begin to feel more confident in the future and become less afraid of having girls 24 Kong Dehong, a 77thgeneration descendant of Confucius has recently declared: “In feudal society men were superior to women. I guess that is why women were not qualified to be included in the family tree. Our women are equal now. We have to adapt to the times.” So,there has been a change and we hope that this big step will have an effect on reducing the discrimination of the girl child

3. Other Countries

South Korea

Government policies in South Korea have also succeeded in reversing the trend quite rapidly.

From the mid-nineties, the government took measures to reverse this trend with positive results so that the girl vs. boy ratio is almost back to normal. There is evidence here that political will is of prime importance in achieving desired results. Enforcing laws and implementing policies are possible as long as all participants pursue the same objective 26 24

China promotes girls to avoid glut of bachelors, China Daily, 08 August 2006

25 Jane Macartney, The Times UK, 28 September 2006

26 Isabelle Attané, op.cit.

15 The Philippines

In the Philippines, an anti-child abuse, discrimination and exploitation division wasestablishe. A children’s training workshop on the girl child was also held which celebrated a week for the protection and fair gender treatment of the girl child.

CONCLUSION

The magnitude of the phenomena of female foeticide and girl infanticide in India, China and other parts of Asia has reached a critical level creating a worldwide demographic imbalance with, in turn, drastic economic and social consequences. Over 100 million women are now missing in Asia which will result in a 12 to 15 percent excess of young men in the nexttwenty years.

This report has argued that female foeticides or sex selective abortions, promoted by modernmedical techniques, have dramatically increased in the last ten years thus exacerbating thekilling of girls. Yet nothing can justify these killings.

As Swami Agnivesh, religious leader and social activist, said last year when talking aboutfoeticides: “There’s no other form of violence that’s more painful, more abhorrent, more shameful”.

Female foeticide not only denies the girl child her most basic human right – the right to be born – but it also turns women into silent victims. Scientific evidence has shown that mothers

who have been put under pressure to kill their baby girls remain deeply hurt and injured for the rest of their lives as they cannot forget their own offspring.

This report has mainly focused on two areas on the killing of girls but other practices leading to the death of the girl child need to be mentioned:

“Honour” killing, usually defined as an act of murder in which a woman or a girl is killed for her actual or perceived immoral behaviour, tends to affect a large number of countries due to

increasing migration. “Honour” killings are either decided and performed by the parents or relatives of the woman or girl or by the state as in the case of stoning. Such killings have

been reported inter alia in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Britain, Ecuador, Egypt, France,

27 Reported by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) Project, 2004

16 India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Sweden,

Switzerland, Turkey and Uganda.

Sexual abuse of girl children is also often fatal and takes many forms including rape and sexual exploitation including the phenomenon of snuff movies made possible through themisuse of new mediatechnologies. During war time rape is used as a weapon of war and as a way of durably humiliating the enemy, thus exacerbating violence. Contamination by HIVAIDS of young “virgins” as a way of purification of the man is also leading to the death of very young girls.

Additionally, female genital mutilation and early marriage with its consequences of exceedingly young childbearing are practices which result in medical complications and oftenlead to the early death of the girl child.

It will take generations to change people’s mindset but the situation worldwide is so dramatic that we cannot afford to wait any longer. It is imperative that the International community calls on the governments and all actors responsible for this human and demographic tragedy to enact laws and take urgent measures to fight these violence and discrimination which, bydenying the first basic right of all – the right to life – denies all other human rights.

28 Snuff movies are short films, generally of bad quality, showing a (supposedly) real murder, often preceded by pornography including women and child rape.

17 Statement to CSW 51

Working Group on the Girl Child

Of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women in Geneva

Written statement to the 51st

February-9 March 2007

Submitted and endorsed by the following NGOs:

Association Country Women of the World

European Federation of Women Active in the Home – Fédération Européenne des Femmes

Actives au Foyer

Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas

Femmes Africa Solidarité

Institute for Family Policy

Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices

International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics

International Council of Jewish Women

International Council of Women – Conseil International des Femmes

International Federation of University Women

International Inner Wheel

Pan Pacific and South East Asia Women’s Association International

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Women’s International Zionist Organization

Women’s World Summit Foundation

World Movement of Mothers – Mouvement Mondial des Mères

World Union of Catholic Women’s Organization

Worldwide Organization for Women

We, the above named Non Governmental Organizations in consultative status with ECOSOC,

through this statement and our report on girl infanticide and female foeticide that will be

presented and distributed during the CSW in its 51

inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of the girl child. Despite the legal

human rights framework and namely the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), we

are deeply concerned with the phenomena of girl infanticide and female foeticide, which

deny the girl child the most basic human right, the right to be born. Not only has the status of

the girl child not improved but in many regions of the world, it has worsened and its future is

threatened.

Girl infanticide, which consists of killing a baby girl at or very soon after birth is a traditionalpractice most common in India and China, but also spreading to other parts of Asia.

Female foeticide is a modern version of infanticide which consists of killing a female foetus via sex-selective abortions. Female foeticide, which has rapidly increased over the last decade, is even more perverse than girl infanticide in that modern technology has made it easier, more silent and an industry has developed to promote it.

18

Both these practices are based on the traditional belief that a girl is less valuable than a boy, and therefore is not worth living. Mainly due to cultural, religious or social factors and practices, such as dowry requirements and inheritance laws, having a girl child is still considered a burden or a failure in many countries. There is no rational explanation for this phenomenon, given the knowledge that sex-selective abortions are even more common in wealthier and educated families.

The magnitude of this human rights violation is building to a worrisome demographic

imbalance with economical and social consequences worldwide:

- Killing of girls in the most populated countries means fewer wives and mothers and in turn,

fewer girls and mothers for future generations resulting into a greater imbalance in the

number of men and women in the world. Over 100 million women are missing, which will

result in a 12 to 15 per cent excess of young men in the next twenty years and therefore a

bride shortage. For example, between 2015 and 2030, 25 million Chinese will have no hope

of finding a wife

- Trafficking of girls and women across borders and within communities is developing at an alarmingly high speed. This only enhances the traditional power structure detrimental to women: becoming seen as a commodity and therefore holding less value. The “paros” phenomenon or the import of “women from the outside” sadly illustrates this situation as girls are easily bought- and the younger the girl, the higher the price.

- Forced marriages are increasing dramatically, in some cases forcing young women into marrying and belonging to several men at the same time.

The phenomena of girl infanticide and female foeticide are alarming and this is the reason why we are calling upon the UN Commission on the Status of Women, in its 51st session focusing on the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child to:

- Reaffirm the equal dignity of men and women, and especially the right to be born.

We also call upon the UN CSW to request political commitment from governments to:

- strengthen and implement laws against girl infanticide;

- amend laws that create and support the conditions where women are seen as a burden, such as inheritance laws and dowry requirements;

- create an environment favorable to girls, for example by giving allowances to families who

welcome girls;

- provide education on gender equality;

- support good local initiatives from NGOs which support families with girl children from

pregnancy onwards.

Madame Chair, nothing can justify the mass-killing, torture, ill-treatment or sale of girls. We

expect that at this UN CSW, a recommendation will be adopted to address this deplorable situation.

29

Le Monde Diplomatique, July 2006

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Reference to Major Treaties and Other Documents

- Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and its optional protocols (2000).

- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

(1979), and its optional protocol (1999).

- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).

- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).

- Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995).

- “Beijing +5” Political Declaration and Outcome Document (2000) and all follow up,

including the CSW Special Session “Beijing +10” (2005).

- Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) (2000).

- Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

- Charter of the United Nations (1947).

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Summary

Principal causes for female foeticide and girl infanticide

- Traditions:social pressure stronger than lawgirls considered as a useless economic burden
misunderstanding of the importance of the committed crime
non respect of women’s rights exclusion of women from their societies if traditions are not followed

superstition, religious beliefs- Illiteracy:
ignorance of the human body and the way it functions
ignorance of the laws in force
- Poverty<
Principal consequences of female foeticide and girl infanticide For women:
high risk of disease / malformation mental traumatism

United Nations Commission on the Status of Women

51 Session – 26 February to 9 March 2007