UN Human Rights Committee (HRCttee-CCPR) Investigates Intersex Genital Mutilations (IGM) – Switzerland Reprimanded!

>>> UPDATE 2017: Switzerland sternly reprimanded for IGM by CCPR/HRCttee!

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'STOP Intersex Genital Mutilation!' - UNHRC Geneva 20.10.2012As the result of yet another >>> Thematic Intersex NGO Report (PDF, 1.66MB) by Zwischengeschlecht.org  / StopIGM.org, Intersex.ch and SI Selbsthilfe Intersexualität, the Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) as the UN body monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) is discussing human rights violation of intersex people for the very first time, and calls upon Switzerland to disclose statistics on IGM Practices in their List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LoIPR) (CCPR/C/CHE/QPR/4, see below).

The Swiss state report addressing the questions of the LoIPR is due in November 2015.

Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org warmly welcomes the HRCttee’s questions on intersex within the LoIPR and is looking forward to the further examination of Switzerland.

Like the ground-breaking 2015 recommendations by the Committe on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Committee against Torture (CAT) and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilites (CRPD), this is yet another big win for the intersex movement – and StopIGM.org was once more in the forefront! To be continued …

(For those unfamiliar with how the UN Human Rights Mechanism of Periodic Reviews works: State parties as signatories to UN conventions or covenants have to submit to a periodic review process regarding their obligations under each convention they ratified. Under the new so-called “Simplified Reporting Procedure”, which applied for the review mentioned above, UN monitoring bodies are transmitting state parties a “List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LoIPR)” before the state parties the write a periodical report incorporating the questions of the LoIPR, directly followed by the examination during the session, and thereafter the body issues Concluding Observations with binding recommendations to the state party – as opposed to the “regular (old style) reporting procedure”, where the state party first produces a report, followed by the List of Issues (LoI) with questions by the UN body concerned, followed by answers to the LoI by the state party, and then the examination during the session followed by the Concluding Observation. At various points in this process, NGOs or Civil Society Orgnisations (CSOs) can report to the UN body concerned (so-called NGO or Shadow Reports). Every state party is up for a periodical review on every UN convention they are a signatory to about every five years.)

In their List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LoIPR), the Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) addressed IGM Practices for the first time, referring to art. 7 (prevention of torture) and art. 24 (protection of the child) of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) (in line with the 2015 ground-breaking recommendations by the Committe on the Rights of the Child and the Committee against Torture, although the CCPR LoIPR predates those recommendations):

Human Rights Committee:
List of issues prior to submission of the fourth periodic report of Switzerland
(25 November 2014, CCPR/C/CHE/QPR/4, para 22, p. 5 >>> Download)

Rights of the child (arts. 7 and 24)

[…]

22.  Please comment on the reports of premature surgery and other medical treatment to which intersex children are subjected. Please indicate the number of intersex children who have undergone sex assignment surgery during the reporting period.

The struggle goes on …

>>> UPDATE 2017: Switzerland sternly reprimanded for IGM by CCPR/HRCttee!

'Human Rights For Hermaphrodites, Too!' - 2015 CRPD NGO Report

Intersex Genital Mutilations: 2015 Report to HRCttee
Documents ongoing Human Rights Violations under CCPR
 What is Intersex? • How Common are IGM-Practices?
 No Law to Prevent IGM  No Data Collection & Statistics
 No Access to Justice & Redress  No Disinterested Research
>>> Download PDF (1.66 MB)  

2017 NGO Report to the 4th Periodic Report of Switzerland on the  International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR)

>>> Download as PDF (809 kb)

Compiled by:
StopIGM.org / Zwischengeschlecht.org
Intersex.ch
SI Selbsthilfe Intersexualität

>>> CCPR120 > Testimony to Intersex Genital Mutilation in Switzerland
>>> TRANSCRIPT + VIDEO: Switzerland Questioned over IGM + REPRIMAND
>>>
Switzerland: Pinkwashing of Intersex Genital Mutilations at HRCttee
>>>
UN Press release english | français – both mention intersex

STOP IGM Primer:
What everyone should know about Intersex Genital Mutilations (IGM)!

>>> Download (PDF, 1.95 MB)

IGM as a Harmful Practice: 2015 UN-CRC Briefing
• IGM: A Survivor’s Perspective • Intersex Movement History
• What are Variations of Sex Anatomy?  • What are IGM Practices?
• IGM and Human Rights  • Conclusion: IGM as a Harmful Practice
>>> Download PDF (3.14 MB)     >>> Table of Contents

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