UN URGES LEGISLATION AGAINST TRADITIONAL PRACTICES

GENEVA, Jan 21 (LSN) – The UN’s 52nd General Assembly has officially adopted a policy to “eradicate”  traditional or customary practices that the UN feels negatively affect the health of women and girls.  The General Assembly resolution (52/99 of December 12 1997) entitled “Traditional or Customary Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Girls, “calls upon all States, to intensify efforts to raise awareness of and to mobilize international and national public opinion concerning the harmful effects of female genital mutilation and other traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls, in particular through education, information dissemination and training, in order to achieve the total elimination of these practices.” Although much of the document touts the elimination of the practice of female genital mutilation, the resolution is careful to add “and other traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women and girls,” which may lead one to suspect the traditional practice of forbidding abortion could also be targeted by this resolution.  Confirming that one such “traditional or cultural practice” would be the forbidding of abortion, Dr.  Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, said “We need to be constantly chipping away at long-held cultural prejudices against gender equality, human rights and reproductive choice, especially for women in developing countries.”  With this information, the resolution in question becomes one of great concern. Especially considering that the UN, in the document, “calls on States”, “to develop and implement national legislation and policies prohibiting traditional or customary practices harmful to the health of women and girls.”