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Preventing Gender-Biased Sex Selection: An inter-agency statement of OHCHR, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women and WHO
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Related Article: Gender Biased Sex Selection Key Issues for Action by Gita Sen
The biologically normal sex ratio at birth ranges from 102 to 106 males per 100 females. However, ratios higher than normal – sometimes as high as 130 – have been observed. This is now causing increasing concern in some South Asian, East Asian and Central Asian countries.
The tradition of patrilineal inheritance in many societies coupled with a reliance on boys to provide economic support, to ensure security in old age and to perform death rites are part of a set of social norms that place greater value on sons than daughters. In addition, a general trend towards declining family size, occasionally fostered by stringent policies restricting the number of children people are allowed to have, is reinforcing a deeply rooted preference for male offspring. As a result, women are often under immense family and societal pressure to produce sons. Failure to do so may lead to consequences that include violence, rejection by the marital family or even death. Women may have to continue becoming pregnant until a boy is born, thus putting their health and their life at risk.
Sex selection can take place before a pregnancy is established, during pregnancy through prenatal sex detection and selective abortion, or following birth through infanticide or child neglect. Sex selection is sometimes used for family balancing purposes but far more typically occurs because of a systematic preference for boys. Although the relatively recent availability of technologies for the early determination of sex has provided an additional method for sex selection, this is not the root cause of the problem. Where the underlying context of son preference does not exist, the availability of techniques to determine sex does not necessarily lead to their use for sex selection.
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Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives
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Urgent Appeal to Change the Mindset
Appeal formulated by the members of the Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives:
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio 2012, must change the dominant mindset by:
Restoring public rights over corporate privileges after thirty years of strengthening the power of investors and big corporations through deregulation, trade and financial liberalization, tax cuts and exemptions, and weakening the role of the state; and after the market- driven financial meltdown.
The principles and values of the Rio Declaration and the UN Millennium Declaration, adopted by heads of states and governments, are threatened and urgently need to be re-established. They include Human Rights, Freedom, Equality, Solidarity, Diversity, Respect for Nature, and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities. Corporate interests do not uphold these principles and values.
Taking equity seriously after thirty years of policies that further widened the gap between rich and poor and have exacerbated inequities and inequalities, not least regarding access to resources.
Unbridled market forces have favored the strong, thereby widening the economic divide. This requires the state to redress the imbalance, eliminate discrimination, and ensure sustainable livelihoods, decent work and social inclusion. Intergenerational justice requires restraint and responsibility of the present generation. It is urgent to establish more equitable per capita rights towards the global commons and to the emission of greenhouse gases, taking fully into account historical responsibility.
Rescuing nature after more than sixty years of global warming, loss of biodiversity, desertification, depletion of marine life and of forests, a spiraling water crisis and many other ecological catastrophes.
The environmental crisis is hitting the poor much more than the affluent. Knowledge-intensive solutions including technologies are available to restore natural systems, and dramatically reduce pressures on climate and the environment while improving human well-being. A “green economy” is attainable but must be embedded in a holistic concept of sustainability. What we need is a change of lifestyles.
The Rio 1992 Summit adopted legally-binding instruments and embraced Civil Society. The Johannesburg Summit 2002 celebrated partnerships relying on a self-regulated Private Sector. The Rio 2012 Summit must re-affirm the State as the indispensable actor setting the legal frame, enforcing standards of equity and human rights, and fostering long-term ecological thinking, based on democratic legitimacy.
This appeal was formulated by the following members of the Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives: Albert Recknagel, terre des hommes Germany; Alejandro Chanona, National Autonomous University of México; Barbara Adams, Global Policy Forum; Beryl d'Almeida, Abandoned Babies Committee Zimbabwe; Chee Yoke Ling, Third World Network; Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, International Resource Panel; Filomeno Sta. Ana III, Action for Economic Reform; George Chira, terre des hommes India; Gigi Francisco, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era; Henning Melber, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation; Hubert Schillinger, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung; Jens Martens, Global Policy Forum Europe; Jorge Ishizawa, Proyecto Andino de Tecnologias Campesinas; Roberto Bissio, Social Watch; Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, Tebtebba Foundation; Yao Graham, Third World Network Africa
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(CSW) DAWN Participation at the 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
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Click HERE for DAWN's statement at the Launch of UN Women
DAWN main events at CSW 55:
FEBRUARY 28, 4:00PM
Church Center for the UN , 8th Floor, Boss Room (777 UN Plaza, corner of 44th Street and 1st Avenue)
Speakers:
Nicole Bidegain Ponte, URUGUAY, International Council on Adult Education (ICAE) & DAWN Training Institute Alumna on The Paradox of Growth and Persistent Inequality in Latin American Progressive Governments
Jayanthi Kuru Utumpala, SRI LANKA, Women and Media Collective and Women’s Support Group on LBT Rights in Relation to Militarization and the Post-Conflict Context in Sri Lanka
Facilitator:
Anita Nayar, INDIA/USA, DAWN Executive Committee and Political Ecology Coordinator
FEBRUARY 24, 2011 / 4:00-5:30PM
Salvation Army Main Auditorium (221 East 52nd Street Between 2nd & 3rd Avenues)
MARCH 2, 2011 / 4:00-8:00PM
“Economics Workshop: Applying a Human Rights Perspective to Macroeconomic Policy”
10th Floor, Church Center for the UN (777 UN Plaza, corner of 44th Street and 1st Avenue)
Event sponsored by CWGL and supported by AWID, DAWN, IAFFE and ESCR-Net
Click HERE for DAWN's Official Statement at the Launch of UN Women
Listen to PODCASTS (CSW 54/55) by Visiting the Multimedia Resources Page HERE
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(CSW) DAWN Statement at the Launch of UN Women
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Women’s movements and women’s rights advocates have reason to cheer and celebrate the launching of the UN Women. In the entire history of the United Nations, it is the only entity that was primarily created in response to the worldwide clamor and mobilization of women’s movements!
 Nevertheless, the timing of the launch cannot be more challenging. The world remains gripped by a long drawn global economic crisis and the United Nations has been told to be more efficient in is operations. We reiterate that funding for UN Women is a critical concern and Member-States must ensure that its funding is significantly scaled up so that both normative and operational functions can be effectively realized. We are particularly concerned that sufficient funding is secured for programs and presence at regional as well as country levels.
Will the UN Women be doing things differently or will this be just a difference in name? For one, there still appears to be a clear divide between the normative and the operational functions, which need to be held together more organically so as to create synergy between the two. We cannot simply have an aggregate of what existed before. Moreover there is the question of its working relationship with the women’s movements. In the past, many of us in civil society provided free labor to one or the other existing entities on women. What will be its new ways for doing things differently?
As the CSW55 formal meetings and numerous events happen in New York, the UN Women is rushing through its national and regional consultations throughout the world. We encourage women’s organizations to participate in these consultations but we question the haste and abruptness of it all. We also raise the issue of how some feminine bureaucrats and gatekeepers from the women’s movements that have been allocated representational status may arise in the process. We must engage but we also need to be vigilant and to break this process open!
We strongly believe a mechanism for Civil Society engagement with UN Women must be both at normative and operational levels. This will ensure an impact on UN Women's governance, program and accountability to women’s organizations. While UN Women seeks to engage experts and stakeholders in expert group meetings, at the operational level this engagement must be established through effective mechanisms whereby local and regional expertise is both sought and represented. In this manner local and regional expertise will not be ad hoc in nature but will be built into the operational structures of UN Women.
Together with other women’s organizations, DAWN is deeply concerned about the absence of a CSO member on the Executive Board. Pragmatism tells us that a call for a non-voting CSO member already gives us an important foothold in the overall governance of UN Women. But this cannot be a stand-alone demand or it will easily descend into tokenism. We need multiple processes and representations to make our engagement with UN Women more meaningful and vibrant.
As we celebrate the launch of the UN Women let us not forget –
UN Women is there FOR us but it is NOT us! It is a UN entity that we still have to hold to account and be answerable to us!!!
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(GEAR) Statement at the First Regular Session of the UN Women Executive Board
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For more information, go to this link or visit the GEAR website at www.gearcampaign.org
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