17th Jun 2013, 3:46 PM – Senate Motions - Gender Biased Sex Selection - Condemn

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Victorian Senator John Madigan (Democratic Labor Party), which means it passed. Motions like these don't make any legal changes on their own, but can be politically influential as they represent the will of the Senate.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) five United Nations agencies: the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and the World Health Organization, have issued a combined report calling for urgent steps to be taken to address gender-biased sex selection, including:

(a) the collection of more reliable data on the extent of the problem,

(b) guidelines on the use of technology,

(c) supportive measures for girls and women, and

(d) other legal and awareness-raising actions,

(ii) in its 2010 report the UNFPA states that, according to the 2000 United States Census, immigrants to the United States of America from China, India and the Republic of Korea had a sex ratio at birth almost as skewed as in their countries of origin, and

(iii) at the UN Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) (1994) in Cairo and at the 4th World Congress on Women (1995) in Beijing, Australia committed ‘to enact and enforce legislation protecting girls from all forms of violence ... including prenatal sex selection’;

(b) condemns the practice of gender-biased sex selection in abortion or infanticide whether in Australia or overseas; and

(c) encourages the Government to support the recommendations of the interagency statement of the five UN agencies and uphold its commitments to the ICPD 1994 and the 4th World Congress on Women.