UNICEF Chief Calls for Nondiscrimination Against Baby Girls

Discrimination against female children is a serious problem around the world and it must be addressed by the international community, chief of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Ann Veneman said Thursday.

"This is the first and ultimate discrimination against the girlchild, when there is selective abortion by people in some countries because a boy child is favored over a girl child," Veneman said during a press conference at the agency's headquarters in New York. "This is an issue that the world needs to address."

Veneman made the comments at the launch of UNICEF's flagship "The State of the World's Children" report, which was published in time to mark the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Friday.

"Why is it that girls will be left to die sometimes after they're born, that they won't be fed, that they will be left without access to education?" asked Veneman.

"There are many areas around the world where there is such low esteems put on the girl child. These kinds of things indeed do happen and it is simply unacceptable and appalling," Veneman said.

UNICEF ambassador and actress Lucy Liu, whose family is from China, said at the press conference that customs and traditions play a vital role in understanding the discrimination that takes place in countries where favor is placed on the male.

"In some countries, the most important thing is lineage," she said. "They want their name to be carried down. They don't really want their name to be lost. That's the only thing that's going to survive them. Immortality is not of the flesh but of the name."

Veneman said that many countries have the problem, which was mainly caused by complex national policies and ingrained cultural traditions. Such as in India, the gender ratio is 93 females for 100 males and the country is missing roughly 10 million girls over20 years.

Even though sex-selective abortion has been illegal in India since the 1990s, cultural norms place a premium on males. Girls are thought to be more expensive as a family is obliged to pay a dowery when she marries. This can be virtually impossible for poorer families.

Liu called on the international community to make greater strides towards understanding cultural differences that could lead to gender discrimination in a bid to help address the problem.

"Ultimately, from a very realistic point of view, we have to understand and respect other peoples' cultures," she said. "Once we have that, we can bridge the gap in understanding why there are problems and why the result is something that is creating mortality among female babies."

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2009)