StopIGM.org

>>> The Flyer (PFD, 345 kb) for the peaceful rallies against international Intersex Genital Mutilators’ “53rd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE)” starting today at the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD). The all day long nonviolent protests will continue until Saturday.

On Friday we will hand in another Open Letter to ESPE and Irish IGM Universities and Children’s Clinics
>>> Open Letter of Concern to ‘ESPE 2014’

>>> Photo Report: Intersex Protest #1, Dublin 18.09.2014 
>>> 4 Peaceful Protests: All the Dates  

We hardly had put our T-shirts on and were still working on the placards, when already the first visitor of “53rd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE)” gave us a thumbs up, “I’m on your side.” So it’s fair to say that the first intersex protest (of all in all 4 until Saturday) kicked off quite nicely. While of course some of the doctors were less amused to have to get past us to enter the Convention Centre, with facial expressions we’ve come to described as “adequately disturbed”, as per usual there were surprisingly many others openly appreciating our presence, stopping for an open conversation on their way in, and/or taking photos. A reknown surgeon which we’ve already met at another recent protest even affirmed again that it’s good we’re here to make them think. We also learned that later this morning there will be a meeting where a pending revision of the infamous 2006 “D$D Consensus Statement” will be discussed, and for tomorrow – a first! – we got an invitation for a short informal meeting with ESPE representants. And all the while, there are still more signatures coming in for the in the meantime traditional Open Letter to ESPE and Irish D$D Universities and Children’s Clinics (the deadline will be in about 2 hours, so if you hurry, you can still sign up!), with the count now already approaching 70 signatures from all over, including many sympathetic doctors. Later today we’re gonna do another peaceful protest at Trinity College, with 2 all day protests back in front of ESPE to follow on Friday and Saturday! See you where the action is!

>>> “53rd ESPE 2014” – 4 Peaceful Intersex Protests: All the Dates

>>> Call to sign the Open Letter to ESPE    >>> Flyer for the Rallies A4 (345 kb)

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 Global, Inc – Why we are targeting ESPE
• ESPE: Preaching CAIS Castrations and Supposedly ‘High Cancer Risk’   

Photo: Peaceful Vigil #3 vs. “DGKCH 2014” Intersex Genital Mutilators, Berlin 28.03.2014

>>> Open Letter to ESPE with 109 Signatories    >>> Flyer for the Rallies A4 (345 kb)
>>> Photo Report: Peaceful Intersex Protest #1 kicking off, Dublin 18.09.2014 
>>> Press Release 19.09. “Genital Mutilations in Irish Children’s Clinics Challenged”

Press Release by StopIGM.org, 10.09.2014:
“Intersex Genital Mutilations in Ireland: Info + Protests, Dublin Sept 16-20”

INFO EVENING: Tue 16 Sept 5.30 pm @ National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI)
4 PEACEFUL VIGILS + OPEN LETTERS: Thu 18th – Sat 20th @ CCD + Trinity (see below)

Intersex 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.

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

IGMs 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 21 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 at ’53rd ESPE 2014′ Paediatric Convention in Dublin

The ’53rd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE)’ held at the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) promotes the entire range of IGMs, and its speakers include not only some of the world’s most notorious IGM paediatric endocrinologist, e.g. Peter Lee (Pennsylvania, USA), Olaf Hiort (Lübeck, Germany), and Nils Krone (Birmingham, UK), but also leading specialised IGM paediatric surgeons, e.g. Alaa El-Ghoneimi (Paris, France), and Joao Pippi Salle (Toronto, Canada).

Despite not wielding the scalpel themselves, paediatric endocrinologists have been the originators and leaders of systematic IGM ‘treatments’, and ESPE’s ‘DSD Working Group’ is a leading global player in setting national and international IGM ‘medical guidelines’ propagating ‘early corrective surgeries’, e.g. ‘to relieve parental distress’.

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

• INFO EVENING:
Tue 16 Sept 5.30 pm @ National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI)
100 North King Street, Smithfield, Dublin 7
“Intersex Genital Mutilations – and the struggle to end them” 
Daniela Truffer and Markus Bauer (StopIGM.org)
Presentation followed by Q&A / Discussion

• 4 PEACEFUL VIGILS + OPEN LETTERS: Thu 18th – Sat 20th
“STOP Intersex Genital Mutilations!”

Thursday 18.09.2014: CCD, Trinity
#1: 07:00-12:30    The Convention Centre Dublin, Spencer Dock, North Wall Quay, Dublin 1
#2: 13:00-17:00    Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2

Friday 19.09.2014: CCD
#3: 07:00-16:30    The Convention Centre Dublin, Spencer Dock, North Wall Quay, Dublin 1

Saturday 20.09.2014: CCD
#4: 07:00-18:30    The Convention Centre Dublin, Spencer Dock, North Wall Quay, Dublin 1

>>> Open Letter to ESPE with 109 Signatories     >>> Flyer for the Rallies A4 (345 kb)
>>> Photo Report: Peaceful Intersex Protest #1 kicking off, Dublin 18.09.2014
>>> Press Release 19.09. “Genital Mutilations in Irish Children’s Clinics Challenged”

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 Global, Inc – Why we are targeting ESPE
• ESPE: Preaching CAIS Castrations and Supposedly ‘High Cancer Risk’

LWPES, ESPE: Originators of Systematic Intersex Mass Mutilations
• Lawson Wilkins, Andrea Prader 1950: From Experimentation to Extermination 
• Lawson Wilkins 1950s: ‘Amputation of the clitoris at the earliest possible time’
   to prevent ‘anxiety in parents’ 
• Lawson Wilkins et al. 1958: ‘Corrective procedures on large numbers of patients’
• Andrea Prader, LWPES 1973: ‘Hereditary Defects Causing Male Pseudohermaphroditism’   

See also:
• Open Letter of Concern to ‘4th WOFAPS’ Berlin 2013
• Open Letter of Concern to ‘9th Joint Meeting’ (ESPE/LWPES) Milano 2013
• Open Letter of Concern to ‘4th I-DSD Symposium’ Glasgow 2013
• Open Letter of Concern to ’51st Annual Meeting of ESPE’ Leipzig 2012
• Open Letter of Concern to ’23rd ESPU’ Zurich 2012
• Open Letter of Concern to ‘ISHID’ Live Genital Mutilators London 2011
• Open Letter of Concern to ‘3rd EuroDSD Symposium’ Lübeck 2011
• Open Letter of Concern to ’11th EMBL/EMBO Conference’ Heidelberg 2010

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is examining Germany for the first time, the (postponed) final examination taking place in March 25-27.

An important step in this process is the so called List of Issues (LoI) CRPD/C/DEU/Q/1 published by the Committee, containing questions to the respective Government focusing on the different articles of the convention. [For the state party’s answers see update below.]

Regarding Intersex and IGMs, CRPD’s questions 11–14 are sensational:

Read moreGermany: UN CRPD calls for data collection and “Plan to Stop this Practice” of Intersex Genital Mutilations and Forced Sterilisation

>>> VIDEO Intersex Side Event + Discussion (1:24:17)

>>> IGM Slides + Transcript (PDF) 

>>> Flyer (PDF)      >>> Media Advisory (PDF)     

Panelists include:
Holly Greenberry, Intersex UK
Mauro Cabral, GATE
Morgan Carpenter, OII Australia
Daniela Truffer and Markus Bauer, Zwischengeschlecht.org

1st ever exclusively Intersex Side Event on occasion of the 25th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Facilitated by ARC International, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Gate, and ILGA. Thank you!

>>> VIDEO (1:24:17)  >>> IGM Transcript (PDF)  >>> Flyer (PDF)  >>> Media Advis. (PDF)

Intersex Genital Mutilations
Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
Extensive 2014 NGO Report to the UN Committe on the Rights of the Child
>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)     >>> Table of Contents   

Nonviolent Protest + Open Letter @ 64th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Urology (DGU),
Leipzig 28.09.2012

Unsurprisingly, for the 3 German Societies for Paediatric Endocrinology (DGKED), Paediatric Surgery (DGKCH), and Urology (DGU) taking the lead in the new guidelines, that means NOT finally ending Intersex Genital Mutilations – but merely “postponing” IGMs “until before or at puberty”, or “10 to 12 years”, after then allegedly having “obtained informed consent” from the “patients”, according to a German media release and interviews (rbb Kulturradio | Der Spiegel) on behalf on the guidelines consortium, in an obvious attempt to address the docs’ ever-increasing problem of mounting public criticism of IGMs.

Intersex Social Movement Victory!

Nonetheless, these proposed new German guidelines remain arguably by far the GREATEST concession EVER considered, let alone “voluntarily” announced to bring in effect, by ANY official perpetrators medical society – and arguably the first major victory of a burgeoning Intersex Social Movement systematically pressuring the doctors on all available levels, including ongoing nonviolent protests in front of relevant annual and other meetings of medical and other bodies involved in perpetrating and promoting IGMs.

“Persons concerned protested against me and fellow surgeons” – Guidelines Speaker Krege

What’s more, paediatric urologist and serial IGM surgeon Susanne Krege, co-coordinator of the proposed guidelines and spokesperson for the German medical societies involved, leaves little doubt to what eventually tipped the scale:

• “Massive public protests” (DGU press release)

• “massive accusations by persons concerned going public” (rbb)

• “persons concerned coming to medical congresses, protesting against me and other surgeons”! (Spiegel)
  

Nonviolent Protest + Open Letter @ 2010 Annual Meetings of the German Societies for Paediatrics (DGKJ),
and Paediatric Surgery (DGKCH), Postdam 18.09.2010 (Photo: A. Klaer © Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten)

When Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org started out to become an international Human Rights NGO in 2007, soon organising our first nonviolent protest on occasion of the first day in court of an Intersex Genital Mutilator in Cologne (Germany), sued by survivor Christiane Völling (who in the end won € 100.000,- damages), it was under the clear premise, if doctors would voluntarily stop mutilating intersex children just because survivors asked them to, they would have done so 20 years ago.

“Doctors need to feel the pain, too” – Daniela “Nella” Truffer (PDF)

Some hundred nonviolent protests, media interviews, public debates, parliamentary questions, NGO reports, and so on later, and after the “ground-breaking” recommendations by the Swiss National Ethic Committe NEK-CNE in 2012, when for the first time an official national body recognised the imminent need of legal review to effectively end IGMs, the proposed new German guidelines stress again how, at the end of the day, a “social movement style” systematic and coordinated effort on all levels, combining public pressure, mass media presence, local, state, and federal parliament pressure, pressure by international human rights bodies, and last but not least ongoing public nonviolent protests – is together most effective in achieving actual change – also when it comes to directly pressuring the perpetrators themselves. 

Nonviolent Protest + Open Letter @ 5th Annual Meeting of the German Society for
Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology (DGKED), Augsburg 05.11.2010

While from an activist’s perspective the scale of the then and current nonviolent intersex protests can hardly be considered as “massive”, obviously for the bad conscience of the perpetrators such protests are still sufficiently triggering every time they are unmistakably called on the illegality and human rights breaches of medically unnecessary and non-consenual Intersex Genital Mutilations, and get publicly noticed.

However, as the proposed new German D$D guidelines show, still a lot more continuous and coordinated pressure on all levels will be needed to eventually end Intersex Genital Mutilations not only in Germany, but wherever negligent doctors wilfully discard the human rights of intersex babies and minors …

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

>>> on Vimeo

VIDEO: Action vs. ‘ISHID’ Live Mutilators!
Protest + Open Letter ‘IV ISHID World Congress’, London 2012
Thanks to Richard Duncker (MenDoComplain)
>>> on Youtube

Intersex Genital Mutilations
Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
2014 NGO Report to the UN Committe on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Documents 17 Forms of IGMs and Nazi-Crimes a.o. in CH, D, A
>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)     >>> Table of Contents

In this >>> youtube video of an anti-circumcision protest in Denver (Colorado) following the “Genital Autonomy 2014” conference, Intersex Genital Mutilations are explicitly criticised – twice!

THANK YOU, Bloodstained Men & Friends, Jonathan Friedman, Katherine, Brother K, James Loewen!

Intersex Genital Mutilations
Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
2014 NGO Report to the UN Committe on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Documents 17 Forms of IGMs and Nazi-Crimes a.o. in CH, D, A
>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)     >>> Table of Contents

Peaceful Vigil #6 vs. “ESPU 2014” Mutilators, Innsbruck 10.05.2014

One abstract stuck out from the presentations at the “25th Anniversary Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Urology”: Doctors at Centre for Reproductive Medicine and Andrology Münster (Germany) for once made the effort to actually put the old medical fairy tale purported by the mutilators guild until today, “Undescended testes can’t produce hormones and are sterile anyway” to a practical test by examining 8 persons with “uncorrected abdominal undescended testes” aged 14–36.

Lo and behold: Their results defied current medical “knowledge” – but confirmed what intersex persons and their organsiations have been claiming for decades: Abdominal testes usually have normal hormone production – and in many cases (in patients aged 14, 16 and 30 (!)) even spermatogenesis sufficient for fatherhood!

For the authors of the presentation these findings were the reason enough to actually call for a review of the current medical practice for “undescended testes”. If the mutilator’s guild will heed this call and take appropriate action remains to be seen.

During one of our peaceful vigils, we had the opportunity to briefly discuss the findings with presenter Karen Czeloth and to thank her for this courageous effort. She personally confirmirmed the findings, and told us, when extracting sperms direcly from the testes, also many klinefelter persons have a chance of fatherhood.

These explosive findings presented at the “25th ESPU 2014” will hopefully increase the pressure on “know all” IGM doctors who (now against better knowledge!) continue to allege that all abdominal testes must be immediately removed or surgically “brought down” and transfixed to the scrotum in the name of fertility and an (allegedly) “high cancer risk”, as well as providing human rights bodies (e.g. WHO, CAT, SRT) with additional ammunition to criticise systematic catrations of intersex children (often under eugenic-racist-nazi implications). And last but not least open the floodgates for lawsuits against mutilators, who incurably choose to continue to castrate intersex persons without actual medical need!

Intersex Genital Mutilations
Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
2014 NGO Report to the UN Committe on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Documents 17 Forms of IGMs and Nazi-Crimes a.o. in CH, D, A
>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)     >>> Table of Contents

Markus Bauer (Zwischengeschlecht.org) is an invited speaker at “Genital Autonomy 2014” / Abstracts (PDF) in Boulder (Colorado), July 24-26. Together with fellow activist Hida Viloria (OII), Markus will represent intersex issues at GA 2014.
“Genital Autonomy”, established in 1989, is a bi-annual international symposium on children’s rights promoting interdisciplinary dialogue about genital cutting practices of male, female, and intersex children. The last symposium’s (abstracts, PDF) speakers on intersex in 2012 were Julius Kaggwa (SIPD, Uganda) and Mika Venhola (youtube-interview), and the symposium issued the 2012 “Helsinki Declaration of the Right to Genital Autonomy”.

Abstract: “Legislation to end Intersex Genital Mutilation: A social movement whose time has come?”

In 1950, systematic early cosmetic genital surgeries on children with variations of sex anatomy were introduced in North America and Europe, and eventually became the de-facto medical standard all over the ‘developed world’. In 1993, survivors started organising against this practice, deploring loss of sexual sensation, framing the non-consensual surgeries as grave human rights violations, namely against the right to physical integrity, and as Intersex Genital Mutilations (IGM), calling for legislation.

Since 2012, after a resurgence of political intersex activism including use of nonviolent action, human rights mechanisms, and lawsuits against perpetrators, this call for legislation has finally been recognised as legitimate and necessary by national and international ethics and human rights bodies, and echoed in parliament.

I’ll analyse the ongoing 20-year-struggle to end IGM in terms of grassroots’ models of social movements, and discuss how an emerging global intersex social movement can succeed in banning IGM within the next decade.

Markus Bauer is the co-founder and campaign organiser of the international human rights NGO Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org, and legally responsible for their online presence. He is the partner of an intersex person, and a decade-long writer, editor, performing artist, political activist, and social organiser. Since 2007, he facilitated countless nonviolent intersex protests in front of mutilators’ clinics and medical congresses, as well as parliamentary motions, submissions and testimonies for ethics and human rights bodies. He has spoken and published internationally on IGM at universities and symposia, and appeared on radio and television, and in newspapers and magazines, including the Wall Street Journal. Zurich, Switzerland.

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 2012
Thanks to Richard Duncker (MenDoComplain)
>>> on Youtube 

Intersex Genital Mutilations
Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
2014 NGO Report to the UN Committe on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Documents 17 Forms of IGMs and Nazi-Crimes a.o. in CH, D, A
>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)     >>> Table of Contents

>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)  >>> Table of Contents  >>> Collective NGO Report
[ UPDATE 2015 ]  UNCRC: IGM Parctices = “Harmful Practice” + “Violence”!

D.  The Treatment of Intersex Persons as a Violation of International Law

“Genital mutilation of intersex children damages genital sensitivity in irreversible ways; it causes post-surgical trauma, and the internalization of brutal prejudices denying or stigmatizing the diversity that in reality human bodies show. […] The difference in genitalia cannot justify, under any pretext whatsoever, ethical and political hierarchies: cannot justify mutilation, because it never normalizes but does the opposite. For us, mutilation creates a permanent status of human rights violation and inhumanity.”
Mauro Cabral, CESCR NGO Statement 2004 [66]

For 21 years now, intersex people from all over the world, and their organisations have been publicly denouncing IGMs as destructive of sexual sensation, and as a violation of basic human rights, notably the right to physical integrity. [67] For 18 years, they have lobbied for legislation against IGMs to end the impunity of perpetrators due to statutes of limitation. [68] For 17 years, they have been invoking the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to fight IGMs, [69] and for 10 years they have been reporting IGM to the UN as a human rights violation. [70] This NGO report marks the 5th time that persons concerned, NGOs and/or a NHRI report IGMs as a relevant issue to the Commission on the Rights of the Child, and the 3rd Swiss NGO report to an UN commission to highlight IGMs (see Bibliography, p. 30).

In Switzerland, like in every intersex community, meanwhile several generations of intersex persons, their partners and families, as well as NGOs and other human rights and bioethics experts, have again and again described IGM as a human rights issue, [71] as harmful and traumatising, [72] as a western form of genital mutilation, [73] as child sexual abuse, [74] and have called for legislation to end it. [75] (Cases No. 1–6)

The UN Committees CEDAW, CESCR and CAT, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Council of Europe (COE), and last but not least the Swiss National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics (NEK) have already recognised the human rights violations perpetrated on intersex children, and demanded legislative measures (NEK, SRT, COE), historical reappraisal, acknowledgement by society of suffering inflicted (NEK) and compensation for victims (NEK, CAT) (see Bibliography, p. 28).

 

66 Mauro Cabral (2004), NGO Statement: Intersexuality, http://ilga.org/ilga/en/article/61
67 Cheryl Chase (1993), Letter to The Sciences RE: The Five Sexes, http://www.isna.org/articles/chase1995a
68 Cheryl Chase (1996), Female Genital Mutilation in the U.S. Discussion, https://www.h-net.org/~women/threads/mut.html
69 Cheryl Chase (1998), ISNA’s Amicus Brief on Intersex Genital Surgery, http://www.isna.org/node/97
70 Mauro Cabral (2004), NGO Statement: Intersexuality, http://ilga.org/ilga/en/article/61
71 Clare O’Dea (2009), Doctors “playing God with children’s sex”, swissinfo 26.08.2009, http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Doctors_playing_God_with_childrens_sex.html?cid=981950
72 Nikola Biller-Andorno (2006), Zum Umgang mit Intersex: Gibt es Wege jenseits der Zuordnung des «richtigen Geschlechts»? Schweizerische Ärztezeitung 47:2047-2048, at 2047, http://www.saez.ch/docs/saez/archiv/de/2006/2006-47/2006-47-283.PDF
73 Mirjam Werlen (2008), Rechtlicher Schutz für Kinder mit uneindeutigem Geschlecht, in: Michael Groneberg, Kathrin Zehnder (eds.) (2008), «Intersex». Geschlechtsanpassungen zum Wohle des Kindes? Erfahrungen und Analysen:178–215, at 184
74 Kathrin Zehnder (2010), Zwitter beim Namen nennen. Intersexualität zwischen Pathologie, Selbstbestimmung und leiblicher Erfahrung, at 201
75 Swiss National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics NEK-CNE (2012), On the management of differences of sex development. Ethical issues relating to “intersexuality”, Opinion No. 20/2012, Recommendation 15, at 19, online

 

Intersex Genital Mutilations
Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
2014 NGO Report to the UN Committe on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Documents 17 Forms of IGMs and Nazi-Crimes a.o. in CH, D, A
>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)     >>> Table of Contents

>>> Collective CRC NGO Report on IGMs
[ UPDATE 2015 ]  UNCRC: IGM Practices = “Harmful Practice” + “Violence”!