Activists to petition SBY on female circumcision regulation

The Legal Aid Institute for Womens Protection (LBH Apik) has sent a petition to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to protest the passing of the 2010 Minister of Health regulation female circumcision.

“The Minister of Health shockingly passed the 2010 Minister of Health regulation on female circumcision on Nov. 15, 2010,” the national coordinator for LBH Apik Indonesia, Nursyahbani Katjasungkana said,

She said that the regulation mentioned legal considerations for female circumcision. Yet the legal considerations lacked clear legal basis.

The considerations were even in opposition to the principles in various laws, such as the law on child protection and the law on health, she added.

“In almost all civilized nations, circumcising [female] children in considered as a discrimination and violence towards females and as an injudicious act towards the female physique,” she said.