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Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
has filed an official Complaint against China with the United Nations
Commission on the Status of Women. The Complaint argues that coercive
population control continues under the new Two-Child Policy. Read the
full text of the Complaint here.
On January 1, 2016, China moved from a
One-Child Policy to a Two-Child Policy. The Chinese announced that by
this modification it was “abandoning” the One Child Policy.
Characterizing this latest modification as “abandoning” the One-Child
Policy is misleading. A two-child policy will not end any of the human
rights abuses caused by the One Child Policy, including forced abortion,
involuntary sterilization or the sex-selective abortion of baby girls.
Coercion is the core of the policy. Instituting
a two-child policy will not end forced abortion or forced
sterilization. As blind activist Chen Guangcheng succinctly tweeted:
This is nothing to be happy about. First the
#CCP would kill any baby after one. Now they will kill any baby after
two. #ChinaOneChildPolicy
The Complaint
1) Provides evidence of current coercive
practices, including recent reports from Guangdong province of a woman
eight months pregnant who has been given the choice of having an
abortion or losing her government job and that of her husband.
2) Discusses the fact that the number of
reported abortions in China increased from 13 million to 23 million a
year, according to the 2015 State Department China report.
3) Describes how the new NIPT pre-natal testing may be used to target girls in sex-selective abortion.
4) Argues that – contrary to the boasts of a
Chinese government official – the “prevention” of 400 million lives
(many through forced abortion) is not the answer to global warming or
sustainable development.
5) Reviews a scientific study demonstrating
that multiple abortions lead to a greatly increased risk of breast
cancer. When caused by forced abortion, breast cancer is a violation of
women’s rights.
6) Describes Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
International Advocacy and Save a Girl Campaign, which has saved more
than 200 baby girls from sex-selective abortion or abandonment, as well
as grinding poverty.
Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights
Without Frontiers, stated: “Sending out the message that China has
“abandoned” its one-child policy is detrimental to sincere efforts to
stop forced abortion and gendercide in China, because this message
implies that the one-child policy is no longer a problem. In a world
laden with compassion fatigue, people are relieved to cross China’s
one-child policy off of their list of things to worry about. But we must
not do that. Let us not abandon the women of China, who continue to
face forced abortion, and the baby girls of China, who continue to face
sex-selective abortion and abandonment under the new Two-Child Policy.
The one-child policy does not need to be modified. It needs to be
abolished.”
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