{"id":74294,"date":"2016-05-30T12:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T11:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=74294"},"modified":"2016-05-28T16:23:15","modified_gmt":"2016-05-28T15:23:15","slug":"tunisia-un-panel-condemns-forced-anal-exams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/05\/tunisia-un-panel-condemns-forced-anal-exams\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunisia: UN Panel Condemns Forced Anal Exams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government Should Ban Abusive \u201cHomosexuality\u201d Tests<\/em><\/p>\n

23 May 2016<\/em> \u2013 The United Nations Committee Against Torture, in its most recent evaluation of Tunisia, condemned<\/a> the use of forced anal examinations as an attempt to find \u201cproof\u201d against people accused of homosexual conduct, Human Rights Watch said today. Tunisia should uphold its commitments as a state party to the Convention Against Torture and ban the use of forced anal examinations.<\/p>\n

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(c) Shams 2015<\/p><\/div>\n

The committee, which evaluates countries\u2019 compliance with the Convention on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (CAT), released its \u201cConcluding Observations,\u201d on May 15, 2016. They are based on an assessment of the Tunisian government\u2019s report on its efforts to combat torture and the reports<\/a> of non-governmental organizations that work on issues related to torture in Tunisia, including Human Rights Watch. The concluding observations, in French, call on Tunisia to revoke article 230 of its penal code, which criminalizes sodomy, and to prohibit the invasive medical examinations, \u201cwhich have no medical justification and cannot be consented to freely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be no doubt: Tunisia\u2019s use of forced anal exams is a human rights abuse,\u201d said Neela Ghoshal<\/a>, senior researcher on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender<\/a> (LGBT) rights at Human Rights Watch. \u201cTunisia should show that it respects its international human rights commitments by immediately banning forced anal examinations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be no doubt: Tunisia\u2019s use of forced anal exams is a human rights abuse.\u201d \u00a0— Neela Ghoshal, senior LGBT rights researcher<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The UN committee voiced concern that \u201cpersons suspected of being homosexual are forced to undergo an anal examination, ordered by a judge and carried out by a forensic doctor, intended to prove their homosexuality.\u201d The committee noted that while suspects can in theory refuse to undergo the exams, many consent only \u201cunder threat from the police, who argue\u2026that refusing consent will be interpreted as a sign of guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch documented two cases<\/a> in late 2015, in which Tunisian police subjected seven young men to forced anal examinations, solely on the grounds that the police suspected them of being homosexual. Police took the men to hospitals, where forensic doctors penetrated their rectums, with their fingers or with other objects, purportedly to determine the tone of the anal sphincter. The tests are based on antiquated and erroneous theories that one can identify physical changes in the anus of a person who practices receptive anal sex.<\/p>\n

All seven men were convicted under article 230, although their sentences were reduced on appeal.<\/p>\n

The Independent Forensic Experts Group (IFEG), composed of forensic medicine specialists from around the world, condemned forced anal examinations in a May 3, 2016 statement<\/a>, stating that \u201cthe examination has no value in detecting abnormalities in anal sphincter tone that can be reliably attributed to consensual anal intercourse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UN Special Rapporteur on torture<\/a> has said that forced anal examinations amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. The Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights<\/a>, the UN Working Group<\/a> on Arbitrary Detention, and other UN agencies<\/a> have also condemned the exams. The forensic experts\u2019 statement asserts that, \u201cForcibly conducting anal examinations on individuals is humiliating, demeaning, and, not surprisingly, almost invariably causes significant psychological suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the Tunisian men Human Rights Watch interviewed, \u201cMehdi\u201d (not his real name), said that when he was forced to undergo the exam \u2013 with two police officers watching as the doctor forcibly penetrated him, \u201cI felt like I was an animal. I felt I wasn\u2019t human…. [I was] completely in shock. I couldn\u2019t absorb what was going on. \u2026 I felt violated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tunisian activist groups, including Damj (\u201cInclusion\u201d) and Shams (\u201cSun\u201d), have urged<\/a> the authorities to ban the use of forced anal exams and decriminalize same-sex conduct. They have said that the National Medical Council should follow the lead of Lebanon, where, in response to an effective campaign led by Lebanese activists, the medical council in 2012, banned<\/a> the use of anal examinations to test for homosexual conduct.<\/p>\n

In addition to Tunisia and Lebanon<\/a>, Human Rights Watch has documented the use of forced anal exams in the last five years in Cameroon<\/a>, Egypt<\/a>, Kenya<\/a>, Turkmenistan<\/a>, Uganda<\/a>, and Zambia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for states to stop subjecting people to abusive tests that serve no useful purpose and often amount to torture,\u201d said Ghoshal. \u201cTunisia, which has in other ways demonstrated progress in its respect for human rights in recent years, should demonstrate leadership by becoming the next country to prohibit forced anal exams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 hrw.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23 May 2016 \u2013 The UN Committee Against Torture condemned the use of forced anal examinations as an attempt to find \u201cproof\u201d against people accused of homosexual conduct in Tunisia, Human Rights Watch said today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sexualities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}