Sri Lanka Forced Physical Exams On LGBT+ People Prosecuted For Homosexuality, Report Reveals
Sri Lankan authorities have subjected at least seven people to forced physical examinations since 2017 in an attempt to provide proof of homosexual conduct, ‘Human Rights Watch’ and EQUAL GROUND revealed. The exams, which include forced anal examinations and a forced vaginal examination, are a form of sexual violence as well as cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment that can rise to torture.
The Sri Lankan government should end abusive physical examinations and stop prosecuting people for consensual same-sex conduct, Human Rights Watch and EQUAL GROUND said.
“No one should be arrested, let alone subjected to torture and sexual violence, because of their perceived sexual orientation,” said Neela Ghoshal, associate LGBT+ rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Sri Lanka’s Justice Ministry should immediately bar judicial medical officers from conducting forced anal examinations, which flagrantly violate medical ethics as well as basic rights.”
Sections 365 and 365A of the Sri Lankan Penal Code prohibit “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and “gross indecency between persons” commonly understood in Sri Lanka to criminalise same-sex relations between consenting adults, including in private spaces. ‘Human Rights Watch’ documented that other laws, including a vaguely worded Vagrancy Law and a penal code provision banning “cheating by personation,” are also used to target trans and gender non-conforming people for arrest.
Police have carried out many such arrests with violence. Among the 61 lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people interviewed for a 2016 Human Rights Watch report, 16 had experienced physical or sexual assault, including rape, by the police.
Forced physical exams, which have the purported objective of finding “proof” of homosexual conduct, lack any scientific basis and violate medical ethics.
The Independent Forensic Experts Group (IFEG), composed of forensic medicine specialists from around the world, has condemned forced anal examinations, stating that “The examination has no value in detecting abnormalities in anal sphincter tone that can be reliably attributed to consensual anal intercourse.”
The World Health Organization has denounced the exams as a form of violence and torture. The World Medical Association has called on all medical professionals to stop conducting the exams, saying that it is “deeply disturbed by the complicity of medical personnel in these non-voluntary and unscientific examinations, including the preparation of medical reports that are used in trials to convict men and transgender women of consensual same-sex conduct.” The judicial medical officers who carried out the exams in Sri Lanka are fully qualified medical doctors, employed by the Justice Ministry, and are bound by standards of medical ethics.
Sri Lanka has ratified core international human rights treaties that obligate the government to protect people’s rights not to experience violence, discrimination, torture, and other ill-treatment. Sri Lanka’s constitution at article 11 and its Convention Against Torture Act recognize the absolute prohibition of torture. Furthermore, fundamental rights recognised by the Sri Lankan Constitution includes nondiscrimination under article 12(2) which states that “No citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion, and place of birth or any one of such grounds.”
In 2014, the government stated at the UN Human Rights Council that discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people was unconstitutional and that LGBTI people were protected under the Right to Equality provisions of Sri Lanka’s Constitution. The government, through its Attorney General, further stated that sections 365 and 365A of the penal code were not used to target LGBT+ Sri Lankans and that to enforce the law in a discriminatory manner against LGBT+ persons was unconstitutional. In 2017, the government reiterated its 2014 position and accepted recommendations from Council members to end discrimination against LGBT+ people. The government made a “voluntary pledge” to “[e]nsure and strengthen respect for fundamental rights of all persons, including those from the LGBTIQ community, and address concerns raised in that regard.”
“The recent evidence of violence and harassment against the LGBTIQ community by law enforcement here is gravely concerning,” said Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, executive director of EQUAL GROUND. “Sri Lanka must respect its commitment to the UN to protect the fundamental rights of LGBTIQ people, including by ending arbitrary arrests and by banning torture and other mistreatment by the authorities.”
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