Intersex Protests + Info: ‘6th I$HID Hypospadias Live Surgery Workshop’ – Frankfurt a.M., June 21-24

Open Letter of Concern to ‘6th ISHID Hypospadias Workshop’ and affiliated Clinics
VIDEO 3 ‘Bodily integrity & self-determination’ – IGM Type 1 – Tiger Devore
VIDEO 2 ‘Unnecessary & harmful’ – IGM Type 1: ‘Hypospadias Repair’ – Tiger Devore
VIDEO 1 Tiger Devore talks IGM Type 1, Part1/4: ‘Clitoral Cutting vs. Hypospadias Repair’

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   TABLE OF CONTENTS:
   1.  I$HID: IGM Global Inc.
   2. “6th I$HID Hypo 2015”: Live Pedo Surgery Nonstop
   3.  Lucrative Human Rights Violations:    
        A Millionaire from Intersex Genital Mutilations
   4.  Info + Protests: All the Dates

Just one week after ‘D$Dnet’ + ‘I-D$D’ in Belgium, on Sun 21.–Wed 24.6. the next Global Intersex Genital Mutilators Conference takes place near Frankfurt/Germany:
The infamous ‘6th ISHID Hypospadias Workshop’ – mostly “Live Surgery”!

INFO EVENING: Mon 22.6. 19h @ Uni FFM, Studierendenhaus Bockenheim, Raum K2
7 PEACEFUL PROTESTS + OPEN LETTER: Seligenstadt + Offenbach Sun 21 – Wed 24

@ MainChateau + Emma Klinik Seligenstadt + Sana Klinikum Offenbach (see below)

1.  I$HID: IGM Global Inc.

The “International Society on Hypospadias and Disorders of Sex Development (ISHID)” was founded in 1999 as a global Intersex Genital Mutilators Association consisting mostly of paediatric surgeons focused on the proliferation of IGM practices in “emerging countries”.

(The original name, from which the still current acronym “ISHID” stems, was “International Society on Hypospadias and Intersex Disorders” [!].)

Since 2005, “I$HID” pushes biannual so-called “World Congresses”, which amongst persons concerned are particularly notorious for their constant emphasis on “Live Intersex Genital Mutilations”. (In 2007, also “EuroDSD” and “DSDnet” Chief Olaf Hiort was featured prominently.)

Ethics and human rights are traditionally absent in the “scientific programme” of the “ISHID World Congresses”.

The greater the astonishment (and the indignation) amongst “I$HID” participants of the “4th World Congress 2011” in London, when they were confronted by nonviolent protests and vigils by StopIGM.org for the whole duration (see photo >>> more on demotix).

The 2011 Open Letter signed by IGM survivers from Europe, Africa and North and South America was left unanswered by the “I$HID” powerholders, despite initial announcements to the contrary.

2. “6th I$HID Hypo 2015”: Live Pedo Surgery Nonstop

The programme of “6th ISHID Hypospadias Workshop” in Seligenstadt/FFM (Germany) consists mostly of live genital mutilations on defenceless children (!!!), which take place in the local Emma Kinik (see programme, PDF), and (like it says on the tin) the “Workshop” focuses on “masculinising genital corrections” a.k.a. surgical “hypospadias repair”, today the most frequent IGM practice, and particularly frailed with complications [WARNING!!!].

(The separate “D$D part”  of the “World Conference” (provisonal programme, PDF) originally announced for 24.-27.6. in Lübeck (homebase a.o. of “EuroD$D” and “D$Dnet”) has been tacitly cancelled in the meantime.)

Main organisers of the “Seligenstadt Workshop” are longterm resident and notorious serial mutilator Prof. Ahmed T. Hadidi and one of his willing local clinics, the Privatklinik Emma Seligenstadt GmbH & Co. KG, where also the live mutilations are scheduled to be perpetrated (see programme, PDF).

In addition, Hadidi also “works” at the (Sana) Klinikum Offenbach GmbH (Teaching Hospital of the Goethe Unversity Frankfurt/M), where according to “Weiße Liste” in Jahr 2012 alone in total 896 defenceless children were mutilated, notably with below average patient/parent satisfaction according to investigations by german helth assurances AOKs, BARMER GEK and hkk (PDF, in german).

Since 2007, Hadidi is listed as a “senior consultant for paediatric surgery” both at Klinikum Offenbach and Emma Klinik Seligenstadt. In a 2008 joint press release, the two clinics and Hadidi boasted of already 300-480 mutilations annually (PDF, in german).

3.  Lucrative Human Rights Violations:
     A Millionaire from Intersex Genital Mutilations

“More than a million Euros” did Seligenstadt-Tycoon Ahmed T. Hadidi funnel into the I$HID venue “MainChateau” in 2013, according to the Offenbach Post (in German) – see photo of Hadidi announcing the project together with the Seligenstadt Mayor, who will also speak during the “Workshop’s” opening ceremony – and in the same 2013 press article, Hadidi also already officially announced this year’s live mutilations (“1. Internationaler Seligenstädter Hypospadie-Workshop”).

Even amongst his paediatric surgeon peers, Hadidi is notorious for aggressively marketing “hypospadias repair” online, while glossing over / omitting complication risks. As parents report, children are dismissed as “successfully repaired” without further follow-up after 1 1/2 years – despite the fact that many seriously dangerous complications [WARNING!!!] (including urethral strictures, sometimes leading to kidney failure!) frequently only appear after 5 to 10 years (!!!).

On the other hand, is Hadidi known for insisting on repeated cosmetic “redo repairs” (“he’s just such a perfectionist”, says one mother) – a common complaint by survivors also of other mutilators, i.e. that continuous “repeat repairs” only stop when the persons concerned are old enough to actively resist further “repairs”.

The international Intersex NGO StopIGM.org will nonviolently protest and educate vs. the “6th I$HID Live Mutilation Workshop” from Sun 21. – Wed 24.6.:

4.  Info + Protests: All the Dates

• INFO EVENING: Monday 22.6. 19:00h, Uni Frankfurt a.M.
Studierendenhaus am Campus Bockenheim, Raum K2, Mertonstraße 26-28,
“Intersex Genital Mutilations – and the Struggle to End Them”
Daniela Truffer and Markus Bauer (StopIGM.org)
Presentation followed by Q&A / Discussion
In cooperation with Autonomes FrauenLesben Referat (AFLR) of Uni FFM

• 7 PEACEFUL VIGILS + OPEN LETTERS:
   Seligenstadt + Offenbach, So 21. – Mi 24.

    “STOP Intersex Genital Mutilations!”

‘6th I$HID Hypospadias Workshop’ with ‘Live Surgery’

Sunday 21.06.2015: MainChateau Seligenstadt
#1: 18:30-20:30  MainChateau, Kleine Maingasse 16-18, Seligenstadt (Nähe Haupteingang)

Monday 22.6.2015: MainChateau + Emma Klinik Seligenstadt
#2: 07:00-12:30  MainChateau, Kleine Maingasse 16-18, Seligenstadt (Nähe Haupteingang)
#3: 13:30-18:00  Emma Klinik, Frankfurter Straße 51, Seligenstadt (Nähe Haupteingang)

Tuesday 23.6.2015: Emma Klinik + MainChateau Seligenstadt
#4: 09:30-12:30  Emma Klinik, Frankfurter Straße 51, Seligenstadt (Nähe Haupteingang)
#5: 13:30-19:30  MainChateau, Kleine Maingasse 16-18, Seligenstadt (Nähe Haupteingang)

Wednesday 24.6.2015: MainChateau + Sana Klinik Offenbach
#6: 07:45-12:30  MainChateau, Kleine Maingasse 16-18, Seligenstadt (Nähe Haupteingang)
#7: 13:30-15:30  Sana Klinikum Offenbach, Starkenburgring 66, 63069 Offenbach am Main (Nähe Haupteingang)

Help reminding the perpetrators that it is NOT OK to mutilate defenceless children!

VIDEO 3 ‘Bodily integrity & self-determination’ – IGM Type 1 – Tiger Devore
VIDEO 2 ‘Unnecessary & harmful’ – IGM Type 1: ‘Hypospadias Repair’ – Tiger Devore
VIDEO 1 Tiger Devore talks IGM Type 1: ‘Clitoral Cutting vs. Hypospadias Repair’
>>> Open Letter of Concern to ‘4th ISHID World Congress 2011’ (PDF)
>>> Press Release 17.09.2011: ‘Hermaphrodites Target Pedo Docs’
>>> VIDEO ‘Three Vigils’: ISHID 2011 Protests

Zwischengeschlecht.org on Facebook

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

“Stop the Mutilation of Intersex Children” – Intersex Protest #2 vs. ‘D$Dnet’ Genital Mutilators, Pt. 2 feat. Daniela Truffer

>>> 8 Intersex Protests + Info vs. ‘D$Dnet’ + ‘I-D$D’, Belgium 07.-13.06.2015 

Intersex Protest #2: ‘1st DSDnet Training School’ @ Ghent University Congress Center ‘Het Pand’, 08.06.2015

Zwischengeschlecht.org on Facebook

On day #2 of the ‘1st D$Dnet Training School’ advocating IGM practices, the participants were greeted by the (admittedly small) obligatory nonviolent intersex protest, also brandishing placard no. 2 in a new series featuring IGM survivors speaking out – in this case Swiss intersex activist and IGM survivor, StopIGM.org’s one and only Daniela “Nella” Truffer, flanked by fellow survivors Claudia Kasper and a placard picturing the late Katrin Ann Kunze (see above).

The placard’s design of course was a blow-up of a 3-page interview on IGM practices in the current issue of Geneva LGBT mag “360”, and the cropped foto used there was in turn shot on occasion of one of several nonviolent intersex protests vs. the 64th Annual Meeting of the ‘German Society for Urology (DGU), Leipzig 28.09.2012:

Daniela, the intersex person having participated most frequently in nonviolent intersex protests on this planet by quite some margin (current IGM protester global rank #2 with just shy of 100 actions under her belt), was prevented from attending today’s protest due to her beloved dog (and seasoned intersex protest veteran) Baiba (current IGM protester global rank #5) having just returned from ICU, fighting for her life against an unknown but serious internal infection.

Daniela has also again and again beared testimony to IGM and it’s lifelong effects in front of various human rights and ethics bodies, as well as in soon 200 media appearances. You can read and hear her story in english in her own words e.g. here:

This blog salutes Daniela for her exceptional leadership in actively and effectively combatting both IGM practices and perpetrators, and protecting future generations from being mutilated like she has been – far above and beyond any call of duty.

“You Were Always Brave,
And Ever May You Be”

>>> Intersex Protests + Info vs. ‘D$Dnet’ + ‘I-D$D’, Belgium 07.-13.06.2015

New WHO Report “Sexual Health, Human Rights and the Law” Criticises Intersex Genital Mutilations (IGM) – Again!

The brand new >>> WHO Report “Sexual health, human rights and the law” (PDF) contains an individual section (!) “Intersex people” (p. 27-28). THANKS to Mauro Cabral and everyone who made it possible!! Highlights include:

“A major concern for intersex people is that so-called sex normalizing procedures are often undertaken during their infancy and childhood, to alter their bodies, particularly the sexual organs, to make them conform to gendered physical norms, including through repeated surgeries, hormonal interventions and other measures. As a result, such children may be subjected to medically unnecessary, often irreversible, interventions that may have lifelong consequences for their physical and mental health, including irreversible termination of all or some of their reproductive and sexual capacity.” (p 26)

“Increasingly, concerns are being raised by intersex people, their caregivers, medical professionals and human rights bodies that these interventions often take place without the informed consent of the children involved and/or without even seeking the informed consent of their parents (178, 262, 264, 270–273).” (p. 26)

“It has also been recommended [by human rights bodies and ethical and health professional organizations] that investigation should be undertaken into incidents of surgical and other medical treatment of intersex people without informed consent and that legal provisions should be adopted in order to provide remedies and redress to the victims of such treatment, including adequate compensation (91, 264).” (p. 27)

After the ground-breaking 2014 WHO Interagency Statement, this new report underlines that recognition of the serious human rights violations perpertrated daily on intersex people allover the “developed world” by leading human rights bodies is here to stay! What’s more, virtually all previous imortant human rights and ethics statements and reports are referenced, including the 2011 CAT Concl. Obs., the 2012 Swiss National Advisory Commission on
Biomedical Ethics (NEK-CNE) Opinion
, and the 2013 Special Rapporteur on Torture Report.

(That the ground-breaking 2015 CRC Concl. Obs. classifying IGM as a “Harmful Practice” is missing is arguably due to deadline reasons.)

May all doctors who nonetheless still continue to perform harmful IGM Practices on defenceless children soon feel the full force of the law!

VIDEO: Intersex “Protest against ‘Genital Mutilation'” – AVS TV Belgium

TV boss saw our rally from car on way to work – >>> Belgian station AVS reports on the Intersex Protests (machine translation):

“In Ghent this week a symposium on “disorders of sex development.” At 1 in 4,000 children born in Belgium, doctors can not really tell whether it is a boy or a girl. Sometimes these children are then operated on. According to an international activist group it comes to genital mutilation.” Thanks!

>>> Intersex Protests + Info: Belgium, June 7-13 • Germany June 21-24

VIDEO Action vs. ‘I-D$D’ Genital Mutilators!
4th I-D$D Symposium, Glasgow 2013
Thanks to Richard Duncker (MenDoComplain)

>>> on Vimeo

VIDEO Action vs. ‘ISHID’ Live Mutilators!
IV ISHID World Congress, London 2011
Thanks to Richard Duncker (MenDoComplain)
>>> on Youtube

Intersex Protests + Info: ‘D$Dnet’ + ‘I-D$D 2015’ – Belgium, June 7-13

Photo Report: Protest #1 vs. ‘D$Dnet Training School’ – feat. Tiger Devore
Protest #2, Part 1 – feat. Pidgeon Pagonis
Protest #2, Part 2 – feat. Daniela “Nella” Truffer   
Protest #4 vs. ‘I-D$D’ – Daniela Truffer + Kris Günther interviewed by local TV
Protest #4 – AVS TV Report Now Online  

Photo: Peaceful Vigil #2 vs. “4th I-D$D Symposium” Intersex Genital Mutilators, Glasgow 07.06.2013

INFO EVENING: Brussels, Sun 7th 6 p.m. @ Rainbowhouse
9 PEACEFUL VIGILS + OPEN LETTERS: Ghent, Mon 8th – Sat 13th

@ Het Pand + New Zebra + Ghent University + Ghent University Hospital (see below)

7 PEACEFUL VIGILS + INFO: FFM (Germany) Sun 21st – Wed 24th  >>> All Dates

STOP Intersex Genital Mutilation!Zwischengeschlecht.org on FacebookIntersex Genital Mutilations (IGMs), i.e. non-consensual, medically unnecessary, irreversible, cosmetic genital surgeries, and other invasive ‘therapies’ on children with variations of sex anatomy, have been perpetrated systematically since 1950 all over the ‘developed’ world.

IGM Practices include clitoris amputation/’reduction’, castration, ‘masculinising genitoplasty’, forced vaginal dilatation, imposition of hormones, human experimentation, forced excessive genital exams, photography, and medical display.

Intersex: No Reckoning, No Reconciliation!IGM Practices cause lifelong serious physical and psychological suffering and trauma, including loss or impairment of sexual sensation, painful scarring, impairment or loss of reproductive capabilities, lifelong dependency of artificial hormones, significantly elevated rates of self-harming behaviour and suicidal tendencies, and lifelong mental suffering and trauma.

For 22 years now, survivors as well as human rights and ethics bodies have denounced IGMs as fundamental human rights violations, and called for legislation to end them.

IGMs @ ‘D$Dnet School’, ‘5th I-D$D’, and Ghent University + Clinic:

‘D$Dnet’ is the latest multi-million-Euros perpetrators “research” project without adaequate involvement of intersex persons and their organisations, and openly advocates “multiple surgical interventions […] for genital reconstruction to a male or female appearance. The gonads are often removed to avoid [alleged] malignant development.” Accordingly, topics at the ‘1st D$Dnet Training School’ include the whole range of IGM pactices, e.g. “Vaginoplasty, Dilation, Urosurgery (male)”, and the ‘D$Dnet School’ takes place at Ghent University’s ‘Het Pand’ Congress Center.

While the ‘5th I-D$D Symposium 2015’ has to be commended for once more facilitating participation of intersex people in a “parallel session”, and for the very first time to also include a guest lecture on human rights, it still gives a platform to notorious persistent perpetrators, including IGM paediatric endocrinologists, e.g. Olaf Hiort (Lübeck, Germany), Ieuan Hughes (Cambridge, UK), and Christa Flück (Bern, Switzerland), and leading specialised IGM paediatric surgeons, e.g. Alexander Springer (Vienna, Austria), Joao Pippi Salle (Doha, Qatar / Toronto, Canada), and Piet Hoebeke (Ghent, Belgium).

The Ghent University and its Clinic and their IGM specialists are involved in both the ‘D$Dnet’ and the ‘I-DSD’ events, and continue to advocate and perpetrate IGM practices – despite the acknowledged fact, that e.g. in medically unnecessary “hypospadias repair” surgeries, often dangerous complications are frequent and inevitable. Typically, the University Clinic’s “Multidisciplinary D$D Team” is lead by a paediatric enocrinologist, and paediatric urology surgeons make up the most prominent and biggest discipline represented. Only last year the Ghent University + Clinic hosted an infamous Genital ‘Live Surgery’ Event.

Help reminding the perpetrators that it is NOT OK to mutilate defenceless children!

• INFO EVENING Brussels:
Sun 07.06.2015 18:00 @ Rainbowhouse

Rue Marché au Charbon, 42, 1000 Brussels
“Intersex Genital Mutilations – and the Struggle to End Them” 
Daniela Truffer and Markus Bauer (StopIGM.org)
Presentation followed by Q&A / Discussion
In cooperation with Genres Pluriels

• 8 PEACEFUL VIGILS + OPEN LETTERS: Ghent, Mon 8th – Sat 13th
    “STOP Intersex Genital Mutilations!”

‘1st DSDnet Training School’

Monday 08.06.2015: Het Pand
#1: 12:30-17:30   Het Pand, Onderbergen 1 (near entrance)

Tuesday 09.06.2015: Het Pand + Ghent University
#2: 08:30-11:00   Het Pand, Onderbergen 1 (near entrance)
CANCELLED: [#3: 11:30-15:00   Ghent University (near main entrance)]

Wednesday 10.06.2015: Het Pand
#4: 08:30-13:30   Het Pand, Onderbergen 1 (near entrance)

‘5th I-DSD Symposium’

Thursday 11.06.2015: New Zebra
#5: 08:30-18:00   New Zebra, Zebrastraat 32 (near entrance conference)

Friday 12.06.2015: New Zebra + Ghent University + University Hospital
#6: 08:30-09:30   New Zebra, Zebrastraat 32 (near entrance conference)
#7: 10:00-14:00   Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 33 (near main entrance)
#8: 15:00-18:00   Ghent University Hospital, Corneel Heymanslaan (near main entrance)

Saturday 13.06.2015: New Zebra
#9: 08:30-14:00 New Zebra, Zebrastraat 32 (near entrance conference)

Photo Report: Protest #1 vs. ‘D$Dnet Training School’ – feat. Tiger Devore
Protest #2, Part 1 – feat. Pidgeon Pagonis
Protest #2, Part 2 – feat. Daniela “Nella” Truffer   
Protest #4 vs. ‘I-D$D’ – Daniela Truffer + Kris Günther interviewed by local TV
Protest #4 – AVS TV Report Now Online  

>>> Open Letter of Concern to ‘4th I-DSD Symposium 2013’ (PDF)
>>> Picture Report: Protests vs. ‘4th I-DSD Symposium’, Glasgow June 7-9 2013
>>> VIDEO of the ‘I-DSD’ Protests in Glasgow | Excerpt Featured on ABC Nightline
>>> ‘I-DSD’: ‘Cruel and inhuman’ surgeries – Press Release 07.06.2013 

Zwischengeschlecht.org on Facebook

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

1st Intersex Protest vs. ‘D$Dnet’ in Belgium highlights often neglected, most common form of IGM practices – feat. Tiger Devore

Protest #1: ‘1st DSDnet Training School’ @ Ghent University ‘Het Pand’, 08.06.2015

Zwischengeschlecht.org on Facebook

VIDEO 2 ‘Unnecessary & harmful’ – IGM Type 1: ‘Hypospadias Repair’ – Tiger Devore
VIDEO 1 Tiger Devore talks IGM Type 1: ‘Clitoral Cutting vs. Hypospadias Repair’

Just in time before the start of the ‘1st DSDnet Training School’, also the first of in total 8 intersex protests this week in Ghent (Belgium) kicked off, reminding the seasoned as well as aspiring doctors flown in from allover that IGM practices are a serious human rights violation. Organised by the multimillion Euros multinational “science research project” ‘D$Dnet’ and hosted by the University of Ghent in their “prestigious congress centre” ‘Het Pand’ for 30 “DSD researchers”, the programme of the ‘1st DSDnet Training School’ includes the whole range of IGM pactices, e.g. “Vaginoplasty, Dilation, Urosurgery (male) [a.k.a. ‘Hypospadias Repair’]”.

“Hypospadias Repair” was also highlighted by the the 1st protest (see picture of placard above). Although often neglected (and denied by doctors), “hypospadias repair” is currently the most common form of IGM practices, leading to sometimes dozens of “redo surgeries” and frequent and often dangerous complications [WARNING!!] constituting actual serious medical health problems where none where before.

Tiger Devore was one of the first survivors of IGM practices at all to speak out in public, and an excerpt (taken from our “STOP IGM Primer” (PDF)) of Tiger’s moving personal testimony “Growning up in the surgical maelstrom” was recently quoted in a report “Human Rights and Intersex People” published the Commissioner on Human Rights of the Council of Europe (COE).

StopIGM.org is honoured that Tiger allowed us to use his quote and picture to highlight the ongoing hypospadias mutilations for the first of a series of new placards featuring IGM survivors speaking out!

As at virtully any intersex protest, there were also good reactions by and conversations with participating doctors, although most just silently cringe at the presence of nonviolent dissent, with some resorting to openly hostile scoffs and sneers. In addition, also good conversations took place with passers-by, including an urologist in training and a staff member of a nearby sociology institute.

Nonetheless, as also customary at some (though not all) institutions, the Ghent University just couldn’t resist to do its worst to remove today’s (admittedly very small) peaceful protest, first by intimidating behaviour by a representantive (who wouldn’t reveal his name or function), repeatedly insisting the protest would have to “move away”, an opinion soon after reiterated by an official University security body builder arriving by car – alas, in vain: As he, after a phone call, eventually had to admit himself, peaceful protests on public ground are lawful – even in front of an intersex genital mutlator’s trainig school hosted by the Ghent University’s “prestigious Congress Centre” ‘Het Pand’. 🙂

Intersex protests will continue in Ghent all week support welcome!

VIDEO 2 ‘Unnecessary & harmful’ – IGM Type 1: ‘Hypospadias Repair’ – Tiger Devore
VIDEO 1 Tiger Devore talks IGM Type 1: ‘Clitoral Cutting vs. Hypospadias Repair’
Open Letter of Concern to ‘6th ISHID Hypospadias Workshop’ and affiliated Clinics

Zwischengeschlecht.org on Facebook

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 Protests vs. ‘I-D$D’ in the News on AVS TV from 18:00 Today and Online Tomorrow

Intersex Protest #4: ‘5th I-DSD’ @ New Zebra, 11.06.2015
Click to watch the video!

Zwischengeschlecht.org on Facebook

Update: Preview online! Daniela Truffer (StopIGM.org) and Kris Günther (Genres Pluriels) were interviewed by Ghent TV station AVS earlier today on occasion of the peaceful intersex protests against IGM doctors taking part in the ‘5th I-D$D Symposium 2015’ who advocate and perpetrate Intersex Genital Mutilations, e.g. paediatric surgeon Prof. Piet Hobeke of the Ghent University + Clinic. The report will be aired on AVS Nieuws from Today 18:00h, and is now archived on vimeo. Enjoy 🙂

Intersex Protest #4: ‘5th I-DSD’ @ New Zebra, 11.06.2015
Click to watch the video!

>>> 8 Intersex Protests + Info vs. ‘D$Dnet’ + ‘I-D$D’, Belgium 07.-13.06.2015
>>>
Photo Report: Protest #1 ‘D$Dnet Training School’ @ Ghent Uni Congress Centre 
>>>
Intersex Protest #2 vs. ‘D$Dnet’ in Belgium, Pt. 1 feat. Pidgeon Pagonis 

Zwischengeschlecht.org on Facebook

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

Video “Intersexion” (2011): Survivors speak out

[ >>> watch on vimeo ]

NEW: Lowrez 68 minutes version resurfaced on vimeo! The video will probably be taken down again soon, so enjoy while it lasts.

44 min. Video: Intersex Activist Mani Bruce Mitchell (NZ) interviews fellow survivors around the globe, a.o. Bo Laurent a.k.a. Cheryl Chase (USA), Sally Gross (ZA), Michel Reiter (D), Peter Trinkl (USA), Tiger Howard Devore (USA), David Cameron (USA), Suegee Tamar-Mattis (USA), Gina Wilson (AU), Esther Leidolf Morris (USA), Gavan Coleman (IR), Hida Viloria (USA), Caitlin Petrakis Childs (USA), Jen Pagonis (USA), Lynnell Stephani Long (USA), Dani Lee Harris (USA). TV-documentary by Grant Lahood (NZ).

>>> “Intersexion” Homepage      >>> Buy DVD NZ$45.00 + PP 

IDAHOT* 2015: Let’s Talk About Intersex Appropriation …

Photo: Intersex Protest #1 vs. ‘4th I-D$D Medical Symposium’, Glasgow 07.06.2013

Heidi Walcutt (1997): 'STOP Intersex Genital Mutilation'

Zwischengeschlecht.org on Facebook First the good news: In Germany, after the community in Leipzig already in 2013 started with truly including Intersex by introducing the clever new acronym IDAHIT* as well as adding thematic events doing justice to intersex persons and their struggles, and last but not least by officially adopting the demand for outlawing the still ongoing harmful practice of Intersex Genital Mutilations, in 2014 Halle (Saale) and in 2015 Jena followed suit. Thanks!! Mostly good news also from the Council of Europe (COE) – see below.

Nonetheless, also in 2015 in many places intersex people are still only seemingly “included” – or even shamelessly appropriated by third party groups! In such cases, Intersex is often “sold” as primarily being an issue of (gender) identity, birth certificates and discrimination, while a the same time Intersex Genital Mutilations, the harm caused, and adequate measures to end them a.s.a.p. are omitted, suppressed, downplayed, belittled, put on the back burner and/or swept under the carpet.

A particularly typical case: The “Focus paper ‘The fundamental rights situation of intersex people'” of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA),
>>> Focus paper (PDF)     >>> Press Release FRA 
which was presented at the “IDAHO-Forum 2015” in Montenegro:

  • The only practical legislative proposition therein is – you get 3 guesses – to adapt sex registration laws, i.e. “Gender markers in identity documents and birth registries should therefore be reviewed to [allegedly] better protect intersex people.”
  • In contrast, not mentioned at all are the serious and lifelong harm and impairments resulting from IGM practices – and instead of practical and effectice demands to end IGM (like proposed by intersex persons and their organisations, and seconded e.g. by CAT, NEK-CNE, CRC, WHO, UNICEF), once more there is only non-binding, mutilator-friendly wish-wash.

Whose interests and priorities this alleged “Intersex focus paper” (for which intersex persons and their organisations obviously were consulted only in form and not in substance) really represents, is also emphasised by a comparison of which key words appear in it how often (and which ones were omitted):

gender: 42
certificate/certification/registration: 33
discrimination/discriminated/discriminatory: 30
identity: 28
orientation: 9

vs.

surgery: 14
integrity: 8
[intersex] mutilation: 2

harmful practice (CRC art, 24.3, CEDAW art. 5): 0
inhuman treatment, torture (CAT art, 2, 4, , CEDAW art. 5): 0

harm [done by IGM]: 0
(loss of) sexual sensitivity/sensation: 0
trauma: 0

redress: 0
statutes of limitation: 0
data collection: 0
monitoring: 0

Bottom line: Intersex Appropriation – Bingo! Once more, survivors of IGM (and intersex children at risk of being submitted to IGM practices) are abused at the “IDAHO Forum 2015” to pursue third party, (gender) identity and civil status politics at their cost – while at the same time, intersex children keep getting mutilated daily – for how much longer?! Yuck!! If those appropriators had their own genitals forcibly cut for a change – their priorities would change pretty fast and thoroughly – wanna bet?!

On the other hand, how such a study can be done better, demonstrates the “Issue Paper ‘Human rights and intersex people'” >>> Issue paper PDF  >>> COE Press release, published by the Commissioner on Human Rights of the Council of Europe (COE), authored by Silvan Agius, and presented at the same “IDAHO-Forum 2015”. Thanks!! Not only does this paper include most of the above missing key words, but generally talks straight, also on IGM practices.

However, also in the COE Issue Paper there are still painful exceptions, for example “statutes of limitation” and “monitoring” are still missing, and, most egregious, regarding the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), of all things the crucial art. 24 para. 3 (“Harmful practices”) went missing – despite having been highlighted also by the Committee in their ground-breaking 2015 recommendations on IGM – pity! A further deficit of the COE issue paper, how John Money is – in accordance with the ever popular gender studies myth – once more counterfactually portrayed as the “inventor” of IGM practices, while in fact this “honour” belongs to Lawson Wilkins.

How much longer?!

22 UN Reprimands for IGM – and counting …
“Harmful Medical Practice”: UN, COE, ACHPR, IACHR condem 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

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Eliminating IGM practices by holding the perpetrators accountable via well-established applicable human rights frameworks, including Inhuman Treatment and Harmful Practices – Presentation @ UN expert meeting on Intersex Human Rights in Geneva 26.–27.10.2015
>>> Download PDF (831kb)