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On the first day of the incursion a 14-year-old girl was killed, followed by many more injuries on the second day as troops opened fire on demonstrators. (...) Some of the women had given birth during their detention, and in such cases the newborn are allowed to remain with the mothers until two years of age. (...) According to DCI research, the majority of girl detainees have been held for allegedly committing serious security offences, such as attempting to kill Israeli settlers or military personnel.

The practice of forced marriage is common in Guinea-Bissau, especially in the Gabú and Bafatá regions. 27 On average, between 7 and 10 per cent of girls are forced into marriage before they reach the age of 15 years 28 and 29 per cent are married before reaching 18 years of age.29 It is also evident that there are some differences according to economic status, with 37 per cent of women from very poor households married before the age of 18.30 In many instances, the marriage is a direct result of poverty, with the male head of household “selling” the girl in return for money, land or cattle. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that, in many cases, early marriages are the result of trafficking, in other words, girls being sold or traded for the purpose of marriage, usually via the threat or use of force, fraud or coercion.31 34. Anecdotal reports paint a tragic picture: in 2011 alone, members of a church in the Tombali region were beaten for sheltering 20 girls aged 14 to 16 who had run away to avoid forced marriages to older men, a 15-year-old girl was beaten to death for refusing to marry a much older man, and a girl and two of her female relatives were beaten for objecting to her wedding on the grounds that the girl was under age.

Particularly worrying is the overcrowding of the mother-child section, where women in the advanced stages of their pregnancy sleep on the floor, and mothers sleep on very small mattresses with their newborn babies in an unsanitary environment. The conditions in the dormitories in the section hosting the convicted inmates is also of concern, with limited ventilation and only one toilet and one shower for approximately 30 inmates. (...) Importantly, it also establishes the State’s obligation to ensure that teenage mothers, pregnant girls and adolescents and girl victims of violence can continue attending school without discrimination.

Child health care with emphasis on newborn care, under-one and under-five children has been accorded priority aiming at the National Health Plan (2006-2011). (...) The Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation, a voluntary non-governmental organization implements the 12 areas of concerns of the Beijing Platform for Action down to the grassroots level and other organizations such as the Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association, the Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs' Association and the Myanmar Women's Sport Federation are actively working for the all-round development of Myanmar women including the girl child. 41. As a State Party to the CEDAW, the Government of Myanmar has submitted the combined second and third national report to the CEDAW Committee in June 2007.

On July 25, 2007, the “Facts and Commentary” newspaper reported on the 12-year-old girl from a village in Savranskyi District, Odessa Oblast, giving birth to a child. The father of the newborn baby who died shortly after birth appeared to be the girl’s mother’s boyfriend.

Although there has always been discussion also within the Jewish community itself, and although some Jewish parents — usually non-religious, “secularized” Jews — decide against circumcising their boys, the overwhelming majority of religiously practising Jews worldwide understand the circumcision of newborn boys as a cornerstone of Jewish identity. (...) When it became clear that it would be a girl, they felt very relieved since this would spare them “questioning looks”. (...) Until the early nineteenth century, they had suffered from serious persecution, since all parents were legally obliged to baptize their newborn children, which the Baptists refused for theological reasons.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (1993) provides employees with the right to take unpaid, job-protected leave of 12 workweeks in a 12-month period, including for the birth of a child and to care for the newborn, within one year of the birth. 3 See www.aclu.org/files/interactive/womensrights_scotus_0303a.html#00. 4 While the Equal Pay Act is limited to jobs within the same workplace, Title VII does not have this limitation. (...) Furthermore, the Working Group deplores the adoption in 1973 of the Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act,16 which was intended to prohibit foreign aid extended by the United States from being used to pay for the use of abortion “as a method of family planning”, but is being used to justify a complete ban on using those funds for abortions, even when a pregnancy is a result of rape or incest or when a pregnancy is a threat to the life of a woman or girl. The Working Group also regrets the adoption in 1976 of the Hyde Amendment prohibiting the use of certain federal funds for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or preserving the life of the mother.

Alarmingly, in one survey, 70 per cent of girl respondents reported that some teachers use sexual intercourse as 32 Ibid., p. 9. 33 Ibid., p. 30. 34 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), HIV and AIDS estimates: Mozambique.