PACE worried over parental sex selection in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has asked Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to "investigate the causes and reasons behind skewed sex ratios at birth".

According to a statement on the Council of Europe official website, the Assembly expressed concerns over "worrying proportions" of parental sex selection at its meeting on Monday.

Whereas the natural sex ratio averages 105 boys to 100 girls, the figure in Albania, Armenia and Azerbaijan is 112 boys to 100 girls, while in Georgia it is 111 boys to 100 girls.

The resolution adopted, based on the report by Doris Stump (Switzerland, SOC), calls on these countries' authorities to "support training for medical staff on prenatal sex selection and its harmful consequences" and to "step up their efforts to raise the status of women in society". The governments concerned should collect reliable data about sex ratios at birth, including in different areas of a single country.

The Assembly called on all the member States “to introduce legislation with a view to prohibiting sex selection in the context of assisted reproduction technologies and legal abortion, except when it is justified to avoid a serious hereditary disease”.