StopIGM.org

Photo: UNHRC UPR #14, Geneva 20.10.2012

Today, the UN Committee against Torture published its binding “Concluding Observations” on the >>> CAT 56th Session Homepage.

As intersex human rights defenders testifying in Geneva to the lifelong consequences of IGM practices had hoped for, the Committee issued strong recommendations on intersex and IGM practices for Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong and China, typically urging states to

(a)    Take the necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to guarantee the respect for the physical integrity and autonomy of intersex persons and ensure that no one is subjected during infancy or childhood to unnecessary medical or surgical procedures;

(b)    Guarantee counselling services for all intersex children and their parents, so as to inform them of the consequences of unnecessary surgery and other medical treatment;

(c)    ensure that full, free and informed consent is respected in connection with medical and surgical treatments for intersex persons and that non-urgent, irreversible medical interventions are postponed until a child is sufficiently mature to  participate in decision-making and give full, free and informed consent;

(d)    Provide adequate redress for the physical and psychological suffering caused by such practices to intersex persons.

StopIGM.org warmly welcomes these verdicts, marking the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th time that the Committee unmistakably denounces IGM practices as serious crimes clearly in breach of the Convention and constituting at least Inhuman Treatment or Torture – and the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th time in 2015 alone that a UN Committee reprimanded a state party over allowing this atrocity to continue unhindered.

In collaboration with local intersex human rights defenders and their organisations, we will continue to document the ongoing practice in ever more countries to relevant human rights bodies – including CAT, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

States as contracting parties to the Convention against Torture and other applicable Covenants including CRC, CCPR and CRPD can no longer feign ignorance of the illegal nature of IGM practices, but now must take all appropriate measures including legislation to eliminate them, and to guarantee access to effective redress and justice for all survivors!

• Austria: NGO Report by VIMÖ & StopIGM.org | Transcript Intersex Q&A | COs

• Denmark: NGO Report by Ditte Dyreborg and StopIGM.org | Transcript Intersex Q&A | COs

• Hong Kong + China: NGO Report by BBKCI | Transcript Intersex Q&A | COs HK + CN

• Historic 56th Session of Committee against Torture questions 5 Governments over IGM

See also:
• 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
• CAT 2011: Germany must investigate IGM practices and compensate survivors!  

Intersex Genital Mutilations • 17 Most Common Forms
Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
IGM – Historical Overview • What is Intersex? • How Common are IGMs?
>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)     >>> Table of Contents

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

Above illustration is an unofficial adaption of the official Human Rights Day 2015 logo and its slogan “Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always.”, made to raise awareness of the “endlessly emerging issue” of “Intersex Rights Are Human Rights!”.

10 December is International Human Rights Day, commemorating the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948. This year’s Human Rights Day also commemorates 50 years adoption of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), the latter amongst other things ensuring Children’s Rights, the Right to Freedom from Torture, and the Right of Freedom from Medical Experimentation, to this day protections most important to intersex prople. Currently the UN Human Rights Committee (HRCttee), the UN body governing the CCPR, is investigating Intersex Genital Mutilations as a breach of the Covenant.

On Human Rights Day 2015, Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org will hold a peaceful vigil outside the Swiss government building in Berne to highlight the complicity of Switzerland in the ongoing Intersex Genital Mutilations, despite the criticism by the Swiss National Ethics Commission NEK-CNE of the human rights violations of intersex people, and several reprimands by UN committees, including by the Committee of the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Committee against Torture (CAT) – (more info on the protest in German).

See also:
• Historic 56th Session of Committee against Torture questions 5 Governments on IGM

Intersex Genital Mutilations • 17 Most Common Forms
Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
IGM – Historical Overview • What is Intersex? • How Common are IGMs?
>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)     >>> Table of Contents

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

Intersex Human Rights Pioneers of the 56th Session of the Committee against Torture:
Small Luk (BBKCI, Hong Kong), witness to IGM practices, with Sapana Pradhan-Malla (CAT member, Nepal), questioned Hong Kong, China, Macau and Denmark over IGM practices (plus Switzerland last August), at Palais des Nations, Geneva 19.11.2015.
Alex Jürgen (VIMÖ, Austria), Ditte Dyreborg (Denmark), Daniela Truffer (Zwischengeschlecht.org) and Markus Bauer (StopIGM.org) also testified.
CAT chairperson Claudio Grossman (Chile) questioned Austria.

During its ongoing 56th session in Geneva, the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) recently questioned Austria, Denmark, and Hong Kong + China + Macau over Intersex Genital Mutilations. This marks the very first time that any UN body examined more than one country regarding IGM practices in one session. Now intersex human rights defenders are expecting the Committee to issue strong and binding “Concluding Observations” for all countries probably next week or soon after.

This global first was made possible by four Intersex NGOs from Europe and Asia combining forces to submit specific thematic intersex reports to the Committee for each country, substantiating the ongoing grave human rights violations against intersex children, and IGM survivors from Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong and Switzerland testifying to the Committee on the lifelong severe pain and suffering caused by IGM practices.

The Committee was impressed by the compelling evidence and testimonies, and consequently questioned all countries over the ongoing practice. Significantly, all state delegations issued flat-out denials, and went on to invoke “LGBTI leadership”, “transgender-intersex paradigm shift” and similar excuses to deflect from their complicity, obviously hoping the Committee wouldn’t recognise the difference.

However, the Committee proved knowledgeable about intersex issues and IGM and every time asked specific follow-up questions, with the delegations again feigning ignorance or simply ignoring the questions. In accordance with earlier similar attempts by state parties, this arrogance will hopefully result in particularly strong recommendations on IGM practices, to be published on the CAT 56th Session Homepage 9 December or soon after.

In the meantime, all Thematic Intersex NGO Reports are available for download via intersex.shadowreport.org, and Transcripts of the Intersex Q&As during the country examinations via StopIGM.org:

  • Austria: NGO Report by VIMÖ and StopIGM.org  |  Transcript Intersex Q&A

  • Denmark: NGO Report by Ditte Dyreborg and StopIGM.org  |  Transcript Intersex Q&A

  • Hong Kong + China + Macau: NGO Report by BBKCI  |  Transcript Intersex Q&A 

The Committee against Torture (CAT) has previously considered IGM practices as constituting “Inhuman Treatment” in violation of the Convention against Torture, and reprimanded Germany for complicity and lack of access to redress and justice for survivors in 2011, and Switzerland in 2015.

Similarly, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has recognised IGM as “Harmful Practice”, and in 2015 reprimanded Switzerland and Chile.

Also in 2015, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) reprimanded Germany, referring to CAT 2011.

The Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) is currently investigating IGM in Switzerland as a breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR).

Hear, hear! Powerful new statements by Alice Dreger and Tiger Devore, rejecting excuses and deflections of IGM doctors aimed at just continuing with criminal mutilations for as lang as anyhow possible, and calling for applying human rights standards, incuding access to redress and justice for survivors!

This blog says Thank you!

See links and quotes relating to the two statements:

>>> Alice Dreger: “Rejecting the Tranquilizing Drug of Gradualism in Intersex Care”
Alice Dreger, the academic with the arguably longest and strongest track record of publicly criticising IGM perpetrators (e.g. Dix Poppas + Maria New), in a companion piece to Tiger’s (see below), announces her departure from “scientific intersex projects” funded by NIH and AAMC, recognizing their approach «as constituting what Dr. King called “the tranquilizing drug of gradualism”»: «I can’t continue to help develop “conversations” around “shared decision making” that allow decisions to be made that I believe violate the most basic rights of these children.»

>>> Tiger Devore: “Statement”
«The surgeries will stop, by legal action, and by recognition of the rights of the child to bodily integrity and self determination over the psychological comfort of the parents who don’t want to have given birth to a “deformed” child. The experiment of surgery on genitalia to “normalize” naturally occurring variants that pose no medical risk has failed. The faster the medical community recognizes this and stops this arrogant practice, the smaller the settlement funds for non consenting experimental subjects like me will have to be.»

>>> VIDEO: Tiger Devore talks IGM Type 1: ‘Hypospadias Repair” – Part 1/4

>>> Intersex Flyer (PDF 118kb) commemorating the 26th Annual Day of the Rights of the Child and raising awareness of Intersex Genital Mutilations which we distributed in Geneva on occasion of the 15th Roundtable of the European Governmental LGBT Focal Points Network and the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Rainbow Cities Network, where Daniela “Nella” Truffer also did a presentation on IGM Practices and Intersex Human Rights.

Input by Daniela Truffer / Zwischengeschlecht.org, Rainbow Cities Network NGO meeting

Today is the Annual Day of the Rights of the Child, marking the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November 1989, for intersex people a most important human rights framework.

As a survivor of Intersex Genital Mutilations, I am particularly grateful to be able to speak here today.

I was born in 1965 with abdominal testes and so called “ambiguous” genitalia.

At two months they removed my healthy testes and threw them in the garbage bin. At seven they cut my genital to make me look more like a girl, allegedly with my consent. At 12 I was prescribed estrogens to induce an artificial puberty, which I still have to take daily.

Today they would probably make a boy out of me, with even more surgeries, complications, and pain.

The doctors always lied to me and my parents. Only at 35 I discovered that I am not alone. Today I am fighting to prevent future intersex children from suffering like myself and my peers.

One of the most frustrating experience in my work is, how nowadays everybody seems to be caring for or at least talking about intersex, but hardly ever about IGM practices, let alone how to eliminate them.

I have to admit I was really irked by the Swiss Government’s press release for the Focal Points Roundtable, where they boast how Switzerland would be, I quote, «expressly extending protection to intersex persons» – that is, as long as it’s limited to, I quote, «discriminations based on sexual orientation or gender identity» – for most intersex people basically a non-problem.

On the other hand, regarding the undisputed intersex problem number one, IGM practices, Switzerland simply denies them, while in fact funding and protecting the perpetrators, not the victims – just like any other so called “developed nation”.

Currently, the UN Committee against Torture questioned Austria, Denmark and China over IGM. All countries flat-out denied the well-documented ongoing practice, while at the same time invoking «leadership in LGBTI issues».

One last example, the current “Intersex Focus Paper” by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, which simply fails to identify ANY relevant human rights frameworks or UN documents.

While the paper goes on and on about identity, gender and birth certificates – it NOT ONCE mentions harmful practices, inhuman treatment, legislation to end IGM, access to redress and justice, statutes of limitations, monitoring, or other crucial items for advancing intersex rights.

Tellingly, the FRA’s only legal recommendation concerns birth certificates and identity documents – while regarding IGM, they seriously propose having nice chats with the mutilators and their accomplices.

Frankly, with supporters like these, who needs enemies?

So, I would like you to consider for a moment:

Are you and your agency able to adequately address IGM practices, including as harmful practice and inhuman treatment – or are you only fit to address discrimination and identity?

In the first case, I would like to win you as a vital intersex ally.

In the second, I ask you to at least do better than the Swiss Government, falsely claiming to «expressly protect intersex persons».

Thank you.

>>> Intersex Flyer distributed @ Rainbow Cities + LGBTI Focal Points (PDF 118kb)

Intersex Genital Mutilations • 17 Most Common Forms
Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
IGM – Historical Overview • What is Intersex? • How Common are IGMs?
>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)     >>> Table of Contents

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

Bearing witness to IGM during the 56th Session of the UN Committee against Torture:
Small Luk (BBKCI Hong Kong), Daniela Truffer (StopIGM.org), Ditte Dyreborg (Danish
Intersex Advocate) (plus Alex Jürgen of VIMÖ) at Palais Wilson, Geneva 13.11.2015

Hong Kong + China + Macau were the 3rd country (or 3rd to 5th governments) up for review of IGM practices at the 56th session of the UN Committee against Torture (after Austria and Denmark).

StopIGM.org reported live from the hearings in Geneva on Tuesday, 17 November 10–13h CET + Wednesday, 18 November 15–18h CET (videos now available via treatybodywebcast.org), including a Transcript of Intersex Q&A:

Session 1: Tuesday 17 November 2015

Tue 12:55h Committee member Sapana Pradhan-Malla just asked Hong Kong, China + Macau (!!!) questions on Intersex and IGM! YAY!!

«Although I’m raising this concern in relation to Hong Kong, but I also want to mention that this is also related to China and Macau, because certain concerns are also raised from China. First [the] committee is extremely concerned about […] involuntary surgeries of infant children born with intersex variations. Therefore [the] committee would like to know, if laws are practiced that allow intrusive or irreversible treatments including forced genital normalisation surgery, involuntary sterilisation, unethical experimentation, medical display […], and I am raising this concern especially in a context when it is infused or administered without free and informed consent of the person concerned. What action you have put or planning to put in this regard?»

Further, Sapana Pradhan-Malla also raised concerns regarding LGBTI issues in general and specifically the lack of legal recognition for trans persons, and non-consensual “reparative therapies, or conversive therapies”.

For the State Parties’ (no)answers see the second session tomorrow. 

Session 2: Wednesday 18 November 2015

[ Note: Unfortunately, here is no Chinese Delegation List avilable, any additional info on the featured Delegates appreciated. ]

Wed 16:10h: A Delegate from the Hong Kong Justice Department (?) gave a global answer on “LGBTI” – without addressing Intersex at all:

«As to the issue of LGBTI mentioned by Madame Gaer and Madame [Pradham-]Malla, China does not view LGBTI as a mental disease or require compulsory treatment for LGBTI people. They are not, they will not be confined in mental hospitals either. Indeed LGBTI face some realistic challenges in terms of social acceptance, informed education, health and family life. This deserves our attention, but this does not fall within the scope of the convention. Thank you for your attention.»

Wed 17:39h Sapana Pradhan-Malla mentions non-answer, repeats question on IGM practices, asks for statistics:

«In your response you mentioned that LGBT is not a crime in China but what about the forced and unnecessary surgery on intersex population?
In relation to Hong Kong I still want some clarification.
[…]
My second concern is if the government has collected any statistics of impact of genital normalisation surgeries on intersex children, if yes how [the] government is intended to educate and sensitise frontline medical professionals.»

Wed 17:47h A Hong Kong Delegate instead describes IGM as entirely unproblematic, purely medical issue:

«Miss Pradhan-Malla raised a question about intersex babies. For intersex babies healthcare professionals adopt a multi-disciplinary approach in providing appropriate investigation, treatment and management based on a clinical condition of individual patients. The process may involve multi-speciality consultations or meeting with medical, social and psychological professionals. The healthcare professionals of the hospital authorities would discuss with the parents of the baby with ambiguous genitalia and assess the sex and the sexual function which the baby may develop in the future. The decision would be made with the agreement of the parents of the concerned baby after thorough discussion with healthcare professional. Thank you.»

The binding “Concluding Observations” of the Committee will be published in December.

My 2 cents: The 3rd flat-out Gov denial of IGM practices in this session – and also the 3rd time in a row that Delegates tried to deflect from IGM by invoking “LGBTI” (or in the case of Austria, “transgender”). Intersex people have long been fed up with being wrongly “subsumed” under such labels as a pisspoor excuse to ignore victims of IGM practices, but to protect IGM perpetrators instead (see e.g. 2015 CAT HK NGO Report, p. 10; 2014 CRC Swiss NGO Report, p. 11-12. How much longer?!

>>> Englisch UN Media Release on the Session, mentions intersex
>>> French UN Media Release on the Session, mentions intersex
>>> Chinese UN Media Release on the Session

>>> CAT #56 investigates IGM Practices in Austria
>>> CAT #56 investigates IGM Practices in Denmark   

>>> CAT 2015 Thematic Intersex Report Hongkong + China
>>> CAT 2015 Thematic Intersex Reports Austria and Denmark

See also:
• 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

Ditte Dyreborg (Danish Intersex Advocate), Daniela Truffer, Markus Bauer (StopIGM.org),
Small Luk (BBKCI Hong Kong) after Intersex NGO Briefing for CAT, Palais Wilson 13.11.2015

Denmark was the 2nd of 3 countries up for review of IGM practices during the 56th session of the UN Committee against Torture (after Austria and followed by Hong Kong + China + Macau).

StopIGM.org reported live from the hearings in Geneva on Monday, 16 November 10–13h CET + Tuesday, 17 November 15–18h CET (videos now available via treatybodywebcast.org), including a Transcript of Intersex Q&A:

Session 1: Monday 16 November 2015

Mon 10:03h: The webcast is live. CAT Chair Claudio Grossman starts the meeting, followed by the Head of the Danish Delegation introducing the delegation.

Mon 10:18h: CAT country co-rapporteur Bruni starts asking questions.

Mon 10:28h: Bruni asks questions regarding (solitary) detention and refugees.

Mon 10:45h: The second country co-rapporteur Sapana Pradhan-Malla starts asking questions. Keep your fingers crossed!

Mon 10:55h: Now it’s about violence against women …

Mon 10:57h: Pradhan-Malla mentions trans people, 80% having to self-medicate hormones

Mon 10:58h: Now Sapana Pradhan-Malla is bringing up IGM practices! YAY!!

«We are also concerned about the situation of intersex persons who are also subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment by the health system. These are the cases when they are infants and subjected to so called “normalisation” correction if the infants offer [atypical] genitalia. These are irreversible surgeries and have been affecting the personal development of individuals and also affecting [their] freedom from non-consensual treatment.
I would like to know what action you are taking in this regard?»

The answers of the Danish delegation followed during the second session tomorrow.

Mon 11:11h: Abdoulaye Gaye mentions that in Danish prisons women can serve their sentences together in mixed units together with men on request – a fact that was also mentioned by other Committee members.

Mon 12:05h: After a minute of silence for all victims of terror attacks (as Chairperson Claudio Grossman thankfully clarified eralier), the Danish delegation starts answering questions. First the head of the Independent Police Complaint Authority takes the floor, as he’s only participating today.Amongst other things he replies to questions regarding the use of pepper spray.

Mon 12:34h: Now it’s about solitary confinement, taking up the remainder of today’s session.

Mon 12:57h: Chairperson Grossman closes the session for today.

Session 2: Tuesday 17 November 2015

Tue 15:01h: The webcast is live. CAT Chair Claudio Grossman starts the meeting. The next 90 minutes, the Danish delegation will give the first round of replies. First the Ministry of Defense is up.

Tue 15:12h: Now it’s about detention.

Tue 15:23h: Immigration services now on.

Tue 15:46h: LGBT refugees’ rights to non-refoulement are guaranteed, if they’re at risk of torture or mistreatment because orientation or identity in country of origin, asylum will be granted, according to immigration authorities.

Tue 15:50h: Health services replying now! Stay tuned for answers on intersex and IGM!

Tue 15:53h: First questions relating to psychiatry will be answered (on now), then re: transgender persons, and then intersex will be up.

Tue 15:56h: Transgender persons have to be enrolled in mental health care system.

Tue 15:58h: Intersex now on. Flat-out denial – again!

Pernille Skafte, Special Advisor to the Ministry of Health:

«In Denmark a child’s sex is determined at birth by the present health care worker based on observations of the child’s external genitals. In rare cases there’s doubt about the sex of the child. In such cases a pediatrician will carry out a further examination of the exterior [external] as well as of the interior [internal] genitals. The determination of the sex will always be carried out in a close dialogue with the child’s parents.

During the diagnosing, the child will be observed and examined by a team of specialised pediatricians. If the child has chromosome variations he or she may need to be involved in treatment throughout it’s childhood. In Denmark this is a specialised medical task which is regulated in the masterplan of specialised hospital services which is determined by the Danish Health Authority.

In Denmark medical treatment can only been carried out on the basis of informed consent. Patients must be 15 years old in order to give informed consent. If a patient is under the age of 15 treatment preposes consent from the child’s parents or from the person who has custody of the child. In cases of treatment within the field of intersex any treatment of children below the age of 15 will always be carried out in a close dialogue with the child’s parents and in coordance with the child’s and/or the parents wishes.

The Danish Ministry of Health does not have any data to suggest that treatment of intersex children has been carried out against without the child’s and the parent’s will.»

Tue 16:34h: Now chairperson Claudio Grossman explains the scope of the Converntion against Torture (since the Danish delegation disputed CAT’s authority to ask some questions), i.e. that it includes e.g. cases of rape amounting to torture, and further highlights article 16 (ill-treatment or CIDT). 🙂

Tue 16:40h: Second round of questions, Committe co-rapporteur for Denmark, Mr. Bruni starting.

Tue 16:58h: Country co-rapporteur Pradhan-Malla follows up on Intersex, highlighting CIDT. While hailing Denmark for leadership in LGBTI (or rather LGB or LGBT) rights, she continues:

«But the concern(s) we have raised are cruel and inhuman treatment of intersex persons, where my specification was in a context when it is inforced or administered without free and informed consent of the person concerned, what action you have put or are planning to put to protect the right to decide their preferences upon reaching maturity?»

Tue 17:15h: Second round of answers, beginning with Department of Justice.

Tue 17:31h: Head of Delegation gives running order for remaining questions, Intersex is mentioned last: “And then there were finally also some questions about intersex, to which we will try to come back to.” Ministry of Defense is next.

Tue 17:39h: Discussing detention now.

Tue 17:47h: Justice Department now on again, but answering only questions on detention and psychiatry. No answers on intersex!

Tue 17:57h: Head of delegation closing remarks.

Tue 17:59h: Chairperson Grossman closes the session.

My 2 cents: Yet another flat-out denial – “no data”, who’da thunk!? Even leading in LGBTI – and therefore entitled to just skip the follow-up question. I mean, “free and informed consent”? For intersex children? In Denmark? Must be kidding, riight? 
And the good news is: Such (non-)answers are usually a good recipe for getting particularly strong “Concluding Observations” – for Denmark due in December. To be continued … 

>>> English UN Media Release on the Session, mentions intersex
>>> French UN Media Release on the Session, does NOT mention intersex

>>> CAT #56 investigates IGM Practices in Austria
>>> CAT #56 investigates IGM Practices in Hong Kong + China + Macau

>>> CAT 2015 Thematic Intersex Reports Denmark and Austria
>>> CAT 2015 Thematic Intersex Report Hongkong + China

See also:

• 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

Alex Jürgen (VIMÖ), Daniela Truffer, Markus Bauer (StopIGM.org)
after the well received Intersex NGO Briefing for CAT, Palais Wilson 11.11.2015

Austria was the first of no less than 3 countries reviewed for IGM practices during the 56th session of the UN Committee against Torture (CAT)  caught lying through their teeth (to be succeeded by Denmark and Hong Kong + China). The Committee had already recognised non-consensual intersex surgery and other treatments as violations of the Convention when examining Germany in 2011 and Switzerland earlier this year.

The >>> Thematic Intersex NGO Report by VIMÖ Association of Intersex People Austria in collaboration with Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org had laid the groundwork, referencing practical examples of the most frequent forms of IGM practices still being perpetrated in many University Clinics, as well as the impunity of the perpetrators and the complicity of the state. During the extended Intersex NGO Briefing, Alex Jürgen’s moving testimony to the lifelong consequences of IGM proved most effctive to make the Committee members really understand the implications IGM practices. Markus Bauer offered a global perspective of the practice as well as current local examples, and Daniela Truffer substantiated the lack access to redress for victims, the factual impunity of the perpetrators (including the very ones responsible for what they did to Alex), and how the State refuses to fulfill its obligation to protect intersex children, but instead protects the perpetrators.

So we were very pleased when during the following two-day session Chairperson Claudio Grossman, one of the Committee’s two country rapporteurs for Austria, on Thursday 12 November asked the Sate Delegation about IGM practices, if the state was aware of this violation? Are there any legislative measures in place? What could be done to prevent it? And when the next day Austria replied only dismissively, Grossman digged deeper in a second round of questions.

In contrast, Austria’s answers delivered by Hon. Prof. Dr. Gerhard Aigner (Federal Ministry of Health) on Friday 13 November were not only a disgrace, but once again underlined how IGM practices are still only an “emerging” human rights issue, of which Governments still seem to think, if they ignore it long enough, it will disappear just as well.

Not only did Aigner flatly dismiss Austria’s responsibilty for the ongoing practice, but he flat-out denied non-consensual intersex treatments still being perpetrated in Austria, instead claiming after a “transgender-intersex paradigm shift” doctors would have renounced the practice in 2013 according to a “new guideline”. *) Finally, according to Aigner in his second (non-)answer, with the influence of “Dr. Google” over today’s patients, surely doctors couldn’t pressure them to unwanted treatments anyways.

*) An obvious reference to the current Austrian “Gender Dysphoria Guideline”. Which of course has has ZERO to do with intersex and IGM practices, except that government representatives (see also Denmark and China) trying to deflect from complicity in IGM practices inevitably tend to resort to the good old “LGBTI excuse” or “pinkwashing” of IGM, since most people have no clue about IGM, so usually nobody won’t notice.

[ For a complete transcript of all intersex questions and answers in German see here. ]

My 2 cents: While the Austrian delegation seems confident to impress the Committee with such impertinence, they might be in for a surprise! The Committee knows about IGM practices, and as previous examples indicate, if they ask questions again after a blanket denial by a state party, and the state party just denies again, this may result in particularly strong “Concluding Observations” – for Austria due in December. To be continued … 

>>> English UN Media Release on the Session, mentions intersex
>>> French UN Media Release on the Session, mentions intersex

>>> CAT #56 investigates IGM Practices in Denmark
>>> CAT #56 investigates IGM Practices in Hong Kong + China + Macau

>>> CAT 2015 Thematic Intersex Reports Austria and Denmark
>>> CAT 2015 Thematic Intersex Report Hongkong + China

See also:
• 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