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View all search resultsInt'l military physicians urged to call for abolition of virginity tests in RI
International military physicians convening in Indonesia should urge President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo to abolish discriminatory and invasive virginity tests for female recruits and fiancées of military officers in the Indonesian armed forces, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday
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I
nternational military physicians convening in Indonesia should urge President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to abolish discriminatory and invasive virginity tests for female recruits and fiancées of military officers in the Indonesian armed forces, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.
The New York-based human rights group made the statement ahead of the world conference of the International Committee on Military Medicine (ICMM), a Belgium-based intergovernmental organization dedicated to fostering professional collaboration between members of the armed forces medical services of all states, which is set to take place in Bali from May 17 to 22.
HRW says the Indonesian Military should immediately abolish virginity tests as they violate the prohibition of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment under international human rights law.
'The Indonesian armed forces should recognize that harmful and humiliating virginity tests on women recruits does nothing to strengthen national security,' HRW's women's rights advocacy director, Nisha Varia, said in a release on Thursday.
'President Jokowi should set the military straight and immediately abolish the requirement and prevent all military hospitals from administering it,' she said.
HRW sent letters to the ICMM and 16 member countries, asking them to urge the Indonesian armed forces to cease all virginity tests.
HRW said it received no response to its letter to Maj. Gen. Daniel Tjen, the general surgeon of the Indonesian Military.
The group says virginity testing is a form of gender-based violence and is a widely discredited practice. It notes that in November 2014, the World Health Organization issued guidelines that stated, 'There is no place for virginity testing; it has no scientific validity.'
HRW said Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijanto had acknowledged that the military required the tests in a statement on Nov.18, 2014, the day that the group issued a report on virginity tests for female National Police candidates.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya said the Indonesian Military had conducted virginity tests on female recruits even longer than the police, without specifying when the practice began.
HRW research found that all branches of the military ' the Air Force, the Army and the Navy ' have used the test for decades and also extended the requirement to the fiancées of military officers. (ebf)
