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Activists Call on the United Nations to Classify Male Circumcision as a Human Rights Crime
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Added: 07/28/2005
Type: Summary
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Activists Call on the United Nations to Classify Male Circumcision as a Human Rights Crime
San Diego, CA
July 27, 2005 -- In response to results of a male circumcision HIV
study presented yesterday at the Third International AIDS Society
Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
several intactivist groups called on the United Nations to classify
circumcision of male children as a human rights crime. The study,
performed on more than 3,000 African men, concluded that circumcision
reduced the chance of HIV infection by 65% over an 18 month period.
Matthew Hess of San Diego based MGMbill.org said that ongoing
circumcision studies in Africa are helping to perpetuate male genital
mutilation. “Although the participants in this latest study were
consenting adults, in the real world circumcision is forced upon
helpless children. I find it quite ironic that the United Nations
condemns female circumcision as a human rights crime while it
simultaneously encourages male circumcision as a preventive health
measure. Circumcision of children is genital mutilation, regardless of
gender, and the U.N. needs to take action now to ensure that male
circumcision is performed only on fully informed consenting adults.”
Tina Kimmel, MSW, MPH, at the University of California Berkeley School
of Social Welfare, said that the U.N. has a blind spot when it comes to
male circumcision. “If this study had examined the health effects of
preventive mastectomy or female circumcision, one can only imagine the
uproar it would have caused. Sadly, there is a double standard when it
comes to boys. The reality in Africa and the rest of the world is that
male circumcision is usually performed on children who are unable to
give their full consent, and the response from UNAIDS (Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) calling the results of this newest study
‘promising’ shows how the power of tradition can blind otherwise
intelligent and rational people to the most horrific of crimes.” Kimmel
is Coordinator of the Bay Area Intactivists Group (BANG), in Oakland,
California, a group that hosts frequent public demonstrations and
informational events on the consequences of male circumcision.
Dr. George Denniston, M.D., and President of Doctors Opposing
Circumcision in Seattle, Washington, said that studies on male
circumcision fail to take into account the sexual damage that
circumcision leaves behind. “As with female circumcision, male
circumcision removes erogenous tissue and leaves the genitals with
significantly diminished sexual capacity. In addition to removing
irreplaceable nerve endings, circumcision initiates a buildup of callus
over the soft and moist exposed membrane of the glans and remaining
inner foreskin. The result is an even further decline in sexual
sensitivity that gets progressively worse as men age. The best way to
prevent HIV transmission is by using condoms, not by cutting off part
of the genitals.”
Marilyn Milos, R.N., and Director of the National Organization of
Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC) in San Anselmo,
California, said the U.N. should take action. “The United Nations has a
responsibility to uphold and implement the U.N. Convention on the
Rights of the Child,” said Milos, “which calls on states to ‘take all
effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing
traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children’. This
terminology is fully applicable to male circumcision.” NOCIRC holds
Roster status on the United Nations Economic and Social Council and has
been working to change U.N. male circumcision policy since 1999.
Although the United Nations currently recognizes forced and coerced
cutting of females as a violation of human rights, it does not offer
the same recognition to male victims.
In light of the mounting negative medical evidence surrounding
circumcision, efforts to ban male circumcision of children the same way
that female circumcision is banned are starting to gain momentum,
especially in the United States. A bill proposed by MGMbill.org to ban
medically unnecessary circumcision of children was resubmitted to
Congress and the California Legislature earlier this year. One U.S.
lawmaker, Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), has already indicated support for
the bill in a letter posted on the group’s website. MGMbill.org is now
in the process of gathering endorsements from health and human rights
organizations to prepare the bill for sponsorship.
Contact:
Matthew Hess
208-330-8435 |
Article Pages: 1
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