Czech government criticized for "phallometric tests"

After the Mossad shark episode, one more from the category "Truth is stranger than fiction." This is crazy stuff.

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Czechs criticised for homosexual 'sexual arousal' tests

The Czech Republic is using controversial "sexual arousal" tests where men are shown p*rnography to check if asylum seekers are homosexual, according to EU's leading human rights agency.

In a report on homosexual equality, the Agency for Fundamental Rights said that phallometric testing, when men are shown both homosexual and heterosexual p*rnography while censors monitor the blood flow to the penis, "was questionable, since it is dubious whether it reaches sufficiently clear conclusions".
The Czech Republic is the only country in the EU that uses phallometric testing in order to distinguish true asylum seekers from those that might use claims of homosexuality and subsequent persecution back home as ruse to get into the country.
The EU agency also said that the test could fall foul of the European Charter of Human Rights, which prohibits degrading and humiliating treatment, adding that "this exam is particularly inappropriate for asylum seekers, given the fact that many of them might have suffered abuse due to their sexual orientation".

The Czech Republic's human rights commission described the test as "undignified".
But the Czech interior ministry defended the method, saying that it was part of a "comprehensive" system to check the veracity of claims, that it was voluntary and had only been used in about ten cases.
Vladimir Repka, a ministry spokesman, explained that the test was applied mainly to asylum seekers from countries "that severely punish homosexuality".
"These are people from areas where Islamic Sharia law is applied, or from countries which have a strong Islamic influence," he explained, citing Iran, Syria, Azerbaijan and Nigeria as examples.
But the Fundamental Rights Agency questioned the interior ministry's claims that the test was "voluntary", arguing that asylum seekers, fearing authorities might interpret their refusal to take the test as suspicious, may feel obliged to take it.
The agency argued that other, less intrusive, ways of determining somebody's sexual orientation such as psychological testing should be used instead.
Petr Khollovou, from Czech organisation People in Need, which provides support for asylum seekers, said that people who had undergone the examination had been "shocked" by the procedure.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ised-for-homosexual-sexual-arousal-tests.html

 

EU takes hard stance on Czech erection tests

The European Commission scolded Czech authorities for subjecting gay asylum seekers to tests that include verifying if they get aroused by viewing heterosexual p*rn.

Czech authorities use so-called "phallometric testing" to determine if men seeking asylum because of persecution against homosexuals in their home country are really gay, the European Union's executive arm said.

The practice is "degrading" and refusing to be subjected to such a test should not be used as grounds to reject an asylum request, the commission said.

Citing a report from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, the commission said it was "difficult to reconcile" the test with "existing human rights standards."

The "phallometric" test is performed by a professional sexologist and, in principle, with the person's written consent after he is informed about the exam, the agency said.

"This raises serious questions regarding the compliance of this practice with existing human rights standards," the agency said on its website.

The test may be proposed to a gay man in order to assess the credibility of his claim when "inconsistencies appear in his interview," it said, citing information provided by the Czech interior ministry.

Refusing the test "may result in questioning the claim" made by the asylum seekers about his homosexuality.

However, the agency said, when "a person passes the test and shows no reaction to visual representations of heterosexual sex, his allegations about his homosexuality are considered proven."

The reliability of the test is questionable, the EU rights agency said, adding that this "oblique practice would in any case not be appropriate as regards people who are bisexual."

http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/article809904.ece/EU-takes-hard-stance-on-Czech-erection-tests

 

Czechs to end tests of gay asylum seekers

Prague, Dec 11 (DPA) The Czech Republic will no longer require gay asylum seekers to undergo arousal tests to prove that they are homosexual after facing criticism that the procedure is humiliating, an official has said.

The testing method - known as phallometry - was invented in the 1950s by a Prague-based sexologist. It is widely used today to determine sexual orientation and deviation.

Vladimir Repka, a spokesman for the Czech interior ministry, told DPA that the asylum applicants would not be given the test unless they ask for it themselves in order to improve their chances for asylum.

The Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights had slammed the Czech authorities for using the test, in which sexologists measure the sexual arousal of gay and lesbian asylum seekers while they watch straight p*rn.

The agency argued in a November report that such testing was unreliable and potentially in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which bans torture and inhumane treatment.

Although it did not seem to be the Czech authorities intent to humiliate applicants, the procedure was degrading, the report said, as it 'involves great exposure of very intimate sexual feelings'.

The agency said that the Czech Republic was 'the only known' EU country to use the method in asylum proceedings.

Repka said that the ministry stopped the tests earlier this year after an Iranian refugee complained about it to a German court.

'We understand that it could be degrading, and that is why we no longer use it and are not likely to use it in the future,' Repka said.

The ministry, however, defended the practice, saying that it had been used in nine cases in recent years after a Czech court suspected that an asylum seeker who had claimed persecution on grounds of sexual orientation was pretending to be homosexual.

The court at that time accepted the test as evidence and the applicant was granted asylum. Eight others who later underwent the test were also granted asylum.

'It can be unpleasant but we had no other way to prove it. The court would have sent him home, where he would be threatened with death,' Repka said.

Phallometry was invented by the Czechoslovak sexologist Kurt Freund in the 1950s and has been used globally to help determine either sexual orientation or deviation, sexologist Petr Weiss told DPA.

A device is attached to the genitals, male or female, which measures changes in their size caused by blood inflow. But the method is not fully reliable and forms only part of a sexologist's examination, he said.

Weiss called the controversy 'a storm in a tea cup'. 'It's ethically sound when people give consent,' he said.

But the question of consent may be tricky in asylum cases.

While the ministry has insisted that the testing was in line with the rights convention because claimants had to give informed consent, groups working with refugees disagree.

Magda Faltova, who heads the Prague-based Association for Integration and Migration, said that her group's clients signed the paperwork without understanding what they were in for.

She also said that the gay applicants were under pressure to undergo the procedure.

'In no way was their consent informed. We had to explain it to them,' she told DPA. 'And the question is what would have happened if they had not agreed.'

http://sify.com/news/czechs-to-end-tests-of-gay-asylum-seekers-news-international-kmlgEfghfdj.html