UN agencies urge renewed efforts to end practice of ‘son preference’

(June 15, 2011) Five United Nations agencies have banded together to call for urgently addressing gender-biased sex selection favouring boys, a common practice in many parts of South, East and Central Asia, that they say fuels a culture of discrimination and violence. “Sex selection in favour of boys is a symptom of pervasive social, cultural, political and economic injustices against women, and a manifest violation of women’s human rights,” said a statement issued by the agencies on Tuesday. Often under intense pressure to produce a son, women seek to discover the sex of a foetus through ultrasound. The discovery of a female foetus can then lead to its abortion, they said. Sex selection can also take place before a pregnancy is established, or after the birth of a girl, through child neglect or infanticide, they add.
Over decades, the practice has caused a sex-ratio imbalance in many countries, particularly in South Asia, East Asia and Central Asia – with ratios in some places as high as 130 boys for every 100 girls. They said “It is women who have to bear the consequences of giving birth to an unwanted girl child. These consequences can include violence, abandonment, divorce or even death,” according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
They propose concrete steps to tackle the problem, including supportive measures for girls and women, such as incentives for families with only daughters; and other legal and awareness-raising actions.