By Marie Smith, director
Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI)
Pro-life advocates around the world called for an end to sex selection abortion and forced abortion during International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2012. Parliamentarians in Canada protested the violence of sex selective abortion where the youngest of females are identified as girls and tragically killed. International Human Rights Day marks the last day of their 16 day campaign to raise awareness and support for an end to the violence of sex-selective abortion. MP Mark Warawa and other MPs used the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence to highlight Motion 408 condemning the practice and increase public support for the legislative measure.
Warawa, the lead sponsor of Motion 408, stated: “The issue of female gendercide is being discussed openly across Canada and internationally. We are calling on all Canadians to work together to end violence against women and girls, to send a message of acceptance that women are valued in Canada and to stop this discrimination, protect girls and support M-408.”
Supporting Warawa is MP Joy Smith who said, “It is a human right not to be discriminated against under Canadian law. Gendercide is discrimination against females. I applaud MP Warawa for putting M-408 forward to raise awareness of this issue. I urge all Canadians to support it, to ensure the protection of girls.”
MP Stella Ambler concurred, “MPs are also seeing the issue of gendercide being talked about across Canada in all cultures. Canada is a leader in human rights around the world, and that is because we take action when atrocities, like gendercide, are committed. All parties in this House have condemned sex-selection.”
Motion 408 was introduced following the exposure of the practice of sex selection in Canada but recently Prime Minister Harper’s office announced that the government will oppose the motion. Social media is being employed to gain support for the effort through a Facebook fan page “Protect Girls - Support M408” and petition drive.
Actions also took place at the Hague in recognition of International Human Rights Day. Leaders of organizations opposed to violence against women, including Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers (WRWF), and The Justice Foundation, met with officials at the International Criminal Court in the Hague and participated in an event at the Chinese Embassy where they presented an open letter to Chinese officials.
The letter, an initiative of the International Commission for Truth and Reconciliation on the Law of Life, is addressed to President Xi demanding the government end its one-child birth limitation policy. The letter states in part, “The coercive enforcement of China’s cruel and barbaric One Child Policy causes more violence towards women and girls than any other official policy on earth. It is China’s war against women and girls. Women are forcibly aborted up to the ninth month of pregnancy. Forced abortion is not a choice. It is systematic, institutionalized violence against women, official government rape; and it continues to this day. We urge you to put an end to this hideous crime against humanity, which in many instances also constitutes torture in violation of China’s international obligations.”
According to Reggie Littlejohn, President of WRWF, “The coercive enforcement of China’s One Child Policy is the biggest human rights violation on earth today - a bloody stranglehold on 1.3 billion people. It must end now. We call upon President Xi Jinping to give hope to the suffering people of China by ending these barbaric practices as his first and most lasting legacy.”
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PNCI commends the Canadian Parliamentarians for their commitment to ending the discrimination and violence of sex selection abortion and those organizations which work so faithfully to reveal the brutality against women in China. The elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls is critically important in the world today as girls’ and women’s lives continue to be devalued and destroyed. Currently 200 million women and girls are missing from the world, victims of violence resulting from cultural preferences for boys and a lack of respect for the inherent dignity of all lives.
It is no accident that three most dangerous words in the world continue to be “It’s a girl.” The film by the same name- “It’s a Girl”-is a valuable tool in ending the real war on the lives of women and girls, of all ages.