UNITED NATIONS, New York - They are females who were abducted to serve as household help and sex slaves of soldiers; had their sexual organs mutilated as part of tradition; or who became sex workers to augment the family income. Harrowing as these experiences are, their situation is worsened by the fact that many of them have barely finish grade school. They are the "girl-children" who related their experiences during the ongoing UN General Assembly Special Session on Women 2000 which ends here on Friday (June 9).

Five "girl-children," now aged 12 to 17, were the speakers in a forum entitled "Girls as Their Own Advocates," of the United Nations Children's Fund.

Grace Acayo was a child-soldier for several years in Uganda. "In 1995, I was abducted by rebels in Uganda. I was brought to Sudan and there trained to be a solider," said Acayo. She said she was also forced to become the "wife" of a soldier. She said her experience is not unusual because the rebels abduct girls below 14 years old and are given to soldiers. Acayo recounted, "I have seen friends die during childbirth; others died of cholera or starvation." She escaped when the rebels assigned her to abduct more children in Uganda. But she said, many children and early teens like her remain in captivity.

Iman Sayyed Abul-Hassan, a 12-year old 5th grader from Egypt, had had genitals mutilated as a young child. The practice, also called "circumcision" of girls is still prevalent in her native country and in some parts of Africa and Western Asia.

The Awdal Women Development Organization, an NGO participating in the ongoing UN session, said female genital mutilation generally involves girls between the ages of six and ten. The practice is intended to prevent premarital sex and extra-marital sex because sexual intercourse would be painful for the woman, and enhance the men's sexual pleasure. The AWDO, however, said genital mutilation brings "immediate and lifelong health consequences, excruciating pain and physical as well as spiritual scars."

A young Nepalese, Yashoda Pandit, recalled how the young women in her village turned to prostitution for economic necessity. "When I was small I had heard that some girls ran away from home and take jobs in the city. When they returned¸ they had good clothes and nice things. I asked them where they got these and they replied: 'You have to give up many things.' I did not yet then understand," she related.

Pandit said that among those who have returned eight have been found to be HIV positive and one has died.She said poverty has led many girls to leave the village to seek work in urban areas. In her village, 30-50 out of 100 children enrolled in school drop out by the time they reach primary grades due to poverty.

"The girl-child can be a strong advocate for women's rights because the girl-child of today is the woman of tomorrow," according to the organizers of the forum, which include the Save the Children, World Vision International, and Girl Scouts USA.

The girl-child is one of the 12 critical areas of concern identified in the Beijing Platform of Action signed by 189 governments in 1995. The Beijing platform is the document produced by the Fourth World Conference on Women held in the Chinese capital.

The conference was considered a "watershed event" as it resulted in a new international commitment to achieve gender equality and development and the general advancement of women into the 21st century. Its implementation by the signatories is currently being reviewed by the special session called " "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace in the 21st Century" or Beijing Plus Five Review.

The other critical areas of concern in the BPFA are: women and poverty, education and training for women, women and health, violence against women, women and armed conflict, women and the economy, women in power and decision making, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, human rights of women, women and the media, women and the environment. (Isis International-Manila Global Women's Media Team) 30