Amnesty urges RI to ban genital mutilation

To mark International Women’s Day on Thursday, human rights watchdog Amnesty International is calling on the Indonesian government to repeal a 2010 government regulation permitting "female circumcision”.

The London-based organization also suggested that authorities help eliminate the practice by enacting specific legislation with appropriate penalties prohibiting all forms of female genital mutilation.

"We echo calls from over 130 national, regional and international organizations in 2011 to end the practice of female genital mutilation in Indonesia,” Josef Roy Benedict, Amnesty International Secretariat’s campaigner for Indonesia & Timor-Leste, said in a press release on Thursday.

In November 2010, the Health Ministry issued a regulation that legitimizes the practice of female genital mutilation and authorizes certain medical professionals, such as doctors, midwives and nurses, to perform it. (...)