By Gudrun Schultz
NEW YORK, October 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The UN report on violence against children throughout the world, released October 11, failed to include any mention of the estimated 47 million annual deaths of unborn children to abortion worldwide.
The official definition of a child utilized by the UN report was “every human being below the age of eighteen years”. However, children not yet born were excluded from the report and presumably not considered to be human beings.
The report shows appallingly high, although possibly questionable statistics of physical and sexual abuse, neglect and homicide. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 53,000 children died worldwide in 2002 from homicide. The WHO estimates that 150 million girls and 73 million boys were sexually abused during 2002.
WHO also estimates between 100 and 140 million girls and women have suffered some form of genital mutilation. UNICEF estimates from 2005 suggest 3 million girls from sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt and the Sudan undergo genital mutilation every year.
Reports from the International Labour Organization show 218 million children were involved in child labour in 2004, with 126 million in hazardous work. 2000 estimates indicate 5.7 million were in forced labor, 1.8 million in prostitution and pornography, and 1.2 million were victims of trafficking.
It is estimated that 1 million children enter prostitution and child pornography every year.
The statistics from WHO and other UN and international organizations are, however, viewed with caution by experienced pro-life, pro-family leaders at the international level. WHO has been known to skew and be selective in statistics reporting to fit its population control, pro-abortion ideology. Other UN and international agencies also have a track record of creating near hysteria through extreme exaggeration in order to move governments and the public to accept social engineering agendas. One of those agendas for the UN has been to remove children from the control of their parents.
In response to the UN report, the UK Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) called for a proposed UN prohibition of violence against children to include a global ban on abortion.
“We are deeply saddened by the report’s findings,” said John Smeaton, SPUC’s national director. “Abuse of children seems to be widespread, and a lot of that abuse is hidden.
“The gravest abuse of children is to deprive them of life before they are even born. Abortion is also often hidden from the public eye or forgotten about. Tragically, this UN study makes no reference [to] the tens of millions of babies unjustly killed every year in countries throughout the world.”
The UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child, and the subsequent Convention on the Rights of the Child states: “Whereas the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.”
“There has been a failure by those charged with implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child properly to implement that convention in respect of all children without discrimination,” the SPUC stated. “Sadly, the convention has been unjustly interpreted by some nations and international bodies to limit its scope to born children.”
“Today’s UN report urges the prohibition of all violence against children. We urge the UN to include a worldwide prohibition of abortion, the greatest of all violence against young, defenceless human beings.”
The report’s silence on abortion extended to any mention of the increasing problem of sex-selected abortions targeting baby girls. A UN report in 2005 stated there are now at least 200 million more males than females worldwide, indicating about 200 million girls and women are missing from the world’s population. Some regions in China and India are already experiencing social stress from the demographic inequality in gender.
UN support for abortion rights at the expense of the rights of the child was further illustrated by the UN Secretariat’s report on violence against women, released this week. Samantha Singson, director of government relations for the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), criticized the report for openly advocating legalized abortion and homosexual rights.
“Despite the fact that the General Assembly has repeatedly stated that laws on abortion are to be legislated by national governments, the report, entitled In-depth Study on All Forms of Violence against Women, calls for the need for legalized abortion.”
“The new study includes “sexual orientation” on the non-discrimination list alongside long established categories such as race, age, class and religion…Member states of the Human Rights Council have repeatedly rejected such efforts arguing that acceptance of the term “sexual orientation”…would deny religious faiths the freedom to speak out against homosexuality and same-sex relationships, and would bolster claims to same-sex “marriage”.
The UN report on children alleges increasing violence levels against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered young people in many states and regions, and calls for governments to “address all forms of gender discrimination as part of a comprehensive violence-prevention strategy.”
Read SPUC commentary: https://www.spuc.org.uk/news/releases/2006/october11
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
UN Compliance Committees New Front Line in UN Abortion Debate
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06092910.html
China Will Not Pursue Criminal Penalties for Sex-Selection Abortion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06062604.html
Previous LifeSiteNews stories on WHO
World Health Organization Adopts Global Strategy to “Promote Abortion”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/may/04052503.html
New World Health Organization chief involved on Population Control vaccine
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/jan/03013003.html
World Health Organization Accused of Using SARS for Political Agendas
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/apr/030428a.html
Abortion Pill RU-486 on Essential Drug List of World Health Organization
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jul/05071102.html
World Health Organization Campaigning with False Science to open Peru to Abortifacients
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/sep/04090904.html