ARTE Intersex Documentary, Saturday 28 May 18:35 CET + Online

En route to the NGO briefing for the UN Committee against Torture, Geneva 18.04.2016.
L.t.r.: Markus Bauer, Daniela Truffer, Vincent Guillot (Screenshot: ARTE)

European station ARTE is showing a 25-minutes intersex ducumentary by Barbara Lohr, Cécile Thullier, Elsa Kleinschmager and Florence Touly >>> watch online (in french/german), partly shot during the CAT review of France, including excerpts from Vincent Guillot’s statement at the NGO briefing for CAT before the session on the ongoing Intersex Genital Mutilations in France and the refusal of the Government to address these serious human rights violations (read it in english here).

CAT chairperson and co-rapporteur for France Jens Modvig personally welcomes intersex human rights defenders Vincent Guillot and Daniela Truffer to the NGO briefing, Palais Wilson 18.04.2016. (Screenshot: ARTE)

During the following review of France, Jens Modvig asked the French delegation good questions on intersex. First he criticised «that in France doctors in public and private clinics regularly perform non-consensual Intersex Genital Mutilation surgeries on intersex infants and children despite the fact that Intersex Genital Mutilation has been found to cause severe pain and suffering» and asked about mandatory «counselling services and psychological support […] [for] intersex children and their parents», and last but not least if France would «intend to take any measures to protect the rights of intersex infants and children».

And after the less than satisfactory reply on intersex by the delegation, Modvig followed up mentioning his own experience as a doctor and remarking, «counselling that would be really useful to put in perspective the early surgery would involve much more neutral facilities, even persons who themselves have been subjected to intersex genital mutilation, so that parents and treatment people to a much larger degree could see the long-term impact of the treatment […]».

You can read Modvig’s statements in full here (Session 1 @ 11:15h and Session 2 @ 16:50h).

CAT member Sapana Pradhan-Malla questioning France over Intersex Genital Mutilations, Geneva 19.04.2016. (Screenshot: ARTE) 

The ARTE docu also features the question to the French delegation by Sapana Pradhan-Malla, including her critique of «the cruel and inhuman treatment of persons with intersex variations in France who are submitted to involuntary masculinising or feminising genital surgeries, sterilising procedures, medical display, and unethical experimentation often during the first years of their life.» You can read Pradhan-Malla’s full statement in english here (Session 1 @ 11:30h).

Unfortunately, the film doesn’t include CAT’s binding recommendations for France, including to «take the necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to guarantee the respect for the physical integrity and autonomy of intersex persons», and «to undertake measures to ensure redress for victims, including adequate compensation». You can read the full binding recommendations in english here.

Intersex Genital Mutilations in France: 2016 UN-CAT Report 
Human Rights Violations Of Persons With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
IGM – Most Common Forms • What is Intersex? • Inhuman Treatment
>>>  Download (PDF 3.71 MB) 

See also:
• 12 Verdicts by UN Treaty Bodies Condemning IGM – And Counting …
• UN Committee for the Rights of the Child (CRC) 2015: IGM = Harmful Practice
• UN Committee against Torture (CAT) 2015: IGM = Inhuman Treatment or Torture
• UN Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) to examine IGM Practices
• UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) condems IGM
• Historic 56th Session of Committee against Torture reprimands 4 Governments over IGM 
• CAT 2011: Germany must investigate IGM practices and compensate survivors!