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Intersex Genital Mutilations = “Harmful Practice”: UN-CRC reprimands South Africa + New Zealand!

December 3, 2023October 7, 2016 by StopIGM.org

Photo: UNHRC UPR #14, Geneva 20.10.2012

Press Release by StopIGM.org, 07.10.2016:

Today, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) published the “Concluding Observations” of its 73rd Session.

Therein, the Committee again recognised Intersex Genital Mutilations as a “harmful practice”, and issued strong binding recommendations obliging both South Africa and New Zealand to “guarantee […] bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination of all children, including intersex children”, and to “adopt legal provisions to provide redress to victims of such treatment, including adequate compensation”:
South Africa: CRC/C/ZAF/CO/2 (PDF) –> paras 37–38, p. 10 | Transcript Session Q&A
New Zealand: CRC/C/NZL/CO/5 (PDF) –> paras 25 + 15, p. 8 + 4–5 | Transcript Session

StopIGM.org warmly welcomes these clear verdicts, marking
• 8 reprimands for IGM practices by CRC
• 18 UN reprimands for IGM so far
• now 13 countries reprimanded in Europe, South America, Asia, Oceania and Africa.

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

States as contracting parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other applicable Covenants including CAT, CRPD, CEDAW and CCPR 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!

Intersex Genital Mutilations in ZA: 2016 UN-CRC Report
Human Rights Violations Of Persons With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
IGM in ZA • Infanticide of intersex newborns • A Harmful Practice
>>> Download (PDF 929 kb)

The binding CRC recommendations on intersex for South Africa:

>>> CRC/C/ZAF/CO/2 (PDF) –> paras 37–38, p. 10

“E. Violence against children (arts. 19, 24 (3), 28 (2), 34, 37 (a) and 39)

Harmful practices

37. The Committee is concerned at the high prevalence of harmful practices in the State party, including child and forced marriage, virginity testing, witchcraft, female genital mutilation, polygamy, violent or harmful initiation rites, and intersex genital mutilation.
The Committee is further concerned that, although the practice of ukuthwala involving children is considered as an ‘abuse of ukuthuwala’ and is a crime, as the State party noted during the dialogue, this practice still exists.

38. In the light of its general comment No. 18 on harmful practices (2014), adopted jointly with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee urges the State party to:

(a) En sure that the State party’s legislation prohibits all forms of harmful practices used on children in the State party, including through, among others, criminalizing the practice of child and forced marriage and regulation of initiation schools;

(b) Develop and adopt a national action plan to effectively eliminate such practices;

(c) Ensure meaningful participation of all stakeholders, including children affected or at risk of harmful practices and their communities in developing, adopting, implementing and monitoring of relevant laws and policies;

(d) Guarantee bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination of all children, including intersex children, by avoiding unnecessary medical or surgical treatment during infancy or childhood;

(e) Build capacity of all professional groups working for and with children to prevent, identify and respond to incidents of harmful practices and to eliminate customary practices and rituals which are harmful to children;

(f) Ensure sanctions on perpetrators of harmful practices, including perpetrators of the abuse of ukuthwala, and provide effective remedies to the victims of harmful practices.”

Intersex Genital Mutilations in NZ: 2016 UN-CRC Report
Human Rights Violations Of Persons With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
IGM in NZ • Children sent overseas for surgery • A Harmful Practice
>>> Download (PDF 720 kb)

The binding CRC recommendations on intersex for New Zealand:

>>> CRC/C/NZL/CO/5 (PDF) –> paras 25 + 15, p. 8 + 4–5

“E. Violence against children (arts. 19, 24 (3), 28 (2), 34, 37 (a) and 39)

Harmful practices

25. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Develop awareness-raising campaigns and programmes targeting households, local authorities, religious leaders and judges and prosecutors, on the harmful effects of early marriage on the physical and mental health and well-being of children, especially girls.

(b) Develop and implement a child rights-based health care protocol for intersex children, setting the procedures and steps to be followed by health teams, ensuring that no one is subjected to unnecessary medical or surgical treatment during infancy or childhood, guaranteeing the rights of children to bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination, and provide families with intersex children with adequate counselling and support;

(c) Promptly investigate incidents of surgical and other medical treatment of intersex children without informed consent and adopt legal provisions to provide redress to victims of such treatment, including adequate compensation;

(d) Educate and train medical and psychological professionals on the range of biological and physical sexual diversity and on the consequences of unnecessary surgical and other medical interventions on intersex children;

(e) Extend free access to surgical interventions and medical treatment related to their intersex condition to intersex children between the age of 16 and 18.

C. General principles (arts. 2, 3, 6 and 12)

Non-discrimination

15. The Committee recalls its previous recommendation (CRC/C/NZL/CO/3-4, para. 25) and recommends that the State party ensure full protection against discrimination on any ground, including by:

(a) Taking urgent measures to address disparities in access to education, health services and a minimum standard of living by Maori and Pasifika children and their families;

(b) Strengthening its measures to combat negative attitudes among the public as well as other preventive activities against discrimination and, if necessary, taking affirmative action for the benefit of children in vulnerable situations, such as Maori and Pasifika children, children belonging to ethnic minorities, refugee children, migrant children, children with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and intersex children and children living with persons from these groups;

(c) Taking all measures necessary to ensure that all cases of discrimination against children are addressed effectively, including with disciplinary, administrative or – if necessary – penal sanctions.”

The international intersex human rights NGO StopIGM.org demands the prohibition of forced genital surgeries on children and adolescents with Variations of Sex Anatomy and “Human Rights for Hermaphrodites too!”

Persons concerned shall later decide themselves, if they want surgeries or not, and if yes, which.

Kind regards

Daniela “Nella” Truffer, Markus Bauer
Founding members human rights NGO Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org

Mobile +41 (0) 76 398 06 50
Mobile +41 (0) 78 829 12 60

presse_at_zwischengeschlecht.info

http://StopIGM.org

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 is a Harmful Practice
>>> Download PDF (3.14 MB) >>> Table of Contents

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

>>> Download PDF (831kb)

Intersex Genital Mutilations: UN to reprimand NZ + ZA today – South Africa first state to recognise ongoing harmful practice

March 21, 2021October 6, 2016 by StopIGM.org

UPDATE: UN-CRC reprimanded both South Africa + New Zealand for IGM practices! YAY!!

Head of South African Delegation, Deputy Minister Hendrietta Ipeleng Bogopane-Zulu speaking:
UN-CRC 73rd Session @ Palais Wilson, Geneva 19.09.2016

Press Release by StopIGM.org, 06.10.2016:

During its 73rd Session, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) investigated Intersex Genital Mutilations in New Zealand and South Africa, expertly questioning both delegations.

Since 2015, CRC has consistently recognised IGM as a “harmful practice” (like FGM) in breach of Art. 24(3) of the Convention.

StopIGM.org is again expecting stern reprimands for both states in the “Concluding Observations” to be published by the Committee later today, marking

8 reprimands for IGM practices by CRC
18 UN reprimands for IGM so far
now 13 countries reprimanded in Europe, South America, Asia, Oceania and Africa.

Typically, UN treaty bodies oblige complicit State parties to

take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent involuntary non-urgent surgery and other treatment on intersex children, and to guarantee bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination to the children concerned
adopt legal provisions to ensure access to redress and adequate compensation for victims
provide families with intersex children with adequate counselling and support

Besides the Committee on the Right of the Child (CRC), also the Committee against Torture (CAT), the Committee for Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) have regularly recognised IGM practices as a violation of the relevant UN Conventions. Currently, also the Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) is investigating IGM as a breach of CCPR.

After evidence and testimony, UN acts

StopIGM.org and South African and New Zealand intersex advocates, NGOs and NHRIs including Legal Resources Centre, Iranti-org, Gender DynamiX, ITANZ Intersex Awareness New Zealand and the NZ Human Rights Commission provided the Committee with evidence of the ongoing practice in both countries, resulting in repeated questions by Committee experts during the interactive dialogue in Geneva, including on New Zealand sending intersex children overseas to RCH Melbourne for non-consensual genital surgeries.

Answering for New Zealand, Dr Pat Tuohy, paediatrician and Chief Adviser of the Ministry of Health, went down the well-trodden path of denial and pinkwashing, claiming “no surgery from 2006” while at the same time patently “confusing” involuntary intersex surgery and “gender assignment surgery”. >>> Full Transcript

On the other hand, South African delegate Zane-Udien Dangor (Deputy Minister’s Special Advisor, Department of Social Development) made intersex human rights history – and South Africa the very first State to officially recognise the “essentially harmful practices” on “intersex children” at the UN:

“I think as a government we do recognise that being intersex is a sexual characteristic and not a medical condition, but at the same time we recognise that there are still practices where newborns and young children are being, surgeries are performed on them which are harmful. So we are now beginning a process in its early stages, to acknowledging that it’s happening, to engage with universities, particularly the university children’s clinics and other medical practitioners around the fact that this is not a medical condition, that surgeries performed at a very young stage are harmful and that it needs to stop.” >>> Full Transcript

Persons concerned shall later decide themselves, if they want surgeries or not, and if yes, which.

Kind regards

Daniela “Nella” Truffer, Markus Bauer
Founding members human rights NGO Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org

Mobile +41 (0) 76 398 06 50
Mobile +41 (0) 78 829 12 60

presse_at_zwischengeschlecht.info

http://StopIGM.org

UPDATE: UN-CRC reprimanded both South Africa + New Zealand for IGM practices! YAY!!

>>> Download PDF (831kb)

“IGM: A Human Rights Violation” – Daniela Truffer, Surrey 23.09.2016

March 21, 2021October 2, 2016 by StopIGM.org

The following is a short presentation by Daniela Truffer (StopIGM.org / Zwischengeschlecht.org) held during the introductory interactive panel at the symposium “After the Recognition of Intersex Human Rights” at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) at the University of Surrey in the UK, and also the 3rd annual meeting of the European Network for Psychosocial Studies in Intersex/Diverse Sex Development (EuroPSI):

The 43rd Session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) marked the first time that intersex people participated in a human rights mechanism. The German Association of Intersex People (ImeV), whom I served as a chairperson at the time, submitted a thematic shadow report, to which I contributed my personal story. And early in 2009, Germany was up for review in Geneva. The Committee seemed to mistake Intersex for an identity and trans issue, and didn’t even mention IGM practices in its recommendations, but at least it was the first Concluding Observations mentioning intersex.

Two years later the Association of Intersex People joined forces with the Law Clinic of the Humboldt University (Berlin) and submitted a more elaborate report to the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) …

… who for the first time issued Concluding Observations on IGM practices, recognising them to constitute at least “inhuman treatment” punishable as torture under the Convention, and obliging Germany to undertake investigation of incidents of IGM and to adopt legal provisions in order to provide redress to the victims of such treatment, including adequate compensation.

Over the following years, the German Association and intersex organisations in other countries submitted more reports to various treaty bodies, but in most cases the Committees didn’t even address intersex in their Concluding Observations, and in no case IGM practices.

At StopIGM.org we felt the best strategy would be to first approach the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to make the case for IGM as a “harmful practice”. We therefore waited until Switzerland was up to be examined by CRC and submitted an extensive thematic report, providing detailed evidence of the ongoing practice, the lifelong severe physical and mental pain and suffering inflicted by it, as well as of the complicity of the State, supplemented by a human rights bibliography and a historical overview of hermaphrodites and IGM through the ages.

When the Committee then invited us for a thematic briefing before the session, it was suddenly in the air that our years of hard work might eventually pay off.

Despite that during the review Switzerland did everything to sidestep the issue, the Committee recognised IGM to constitute a “harmful practice” like FGM, referring to the Swiss National Ethics Commission (NEK-CNE) recommendations and to the CRC-CEDAW Joint General Comment 18/31 “on harmful practices”, obliging state parties to “explicitly prohibit by law and adequately sanction or criminalize harmful practices”, as well as to “provide for redress for victims and combat impunity for harmful practices”.

During the CRC briefing, a Committee member asked if we would also consider writing reports for other countries. In collaboration with international members of our NGO and fellow intersex advocates and organisations, we’ve been continuously submitting reports since, to this day securing 16 reprimands, each time recognising IGM as a “harmful practice”, as “inhuman treatment” or, in the case of CRPD, as a “violation of the physical and mental integrity”.

Even better, by the end of next week or soon after we are expecting two more reprimands by CRC, and one more by CEDAW by the end of October, and even more are already in the making.

Thank you.

>>> Download PDF (831kb)

“Human Rights for Hermaphrodites, Too!” – Poster by Daniela Truffer, Surrey 24.09.2016

March 21, 2021September 30, 2016 by StopIGM.org

click to enlarge the poster!

A poster presentation by Daniela Truffer (StopIGM.org / Zwischengeschlecht.org) on occasion of the symposium “After the Recognition of Intersex Human Rights” at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) at the University of Surrey in the UK, and also the 3rd annual meeting of the European Network for Psychosocial Studies in Intersex/Diverse Sex Development (EuroPSI).
Abstract + more photos after the break:

Italy > Palermo University Clinic repeatedly mutilates 2 years old intersex child, perpetrators boast in the media

March 21, 2021September 28, 2016 by StopIGM.org

Screenshot: Palermo perps fessing up to IGM 1 + 3 – Source: Palermo Today, 27.09.2016

A recent italian media article published in various outlets including Palermo Today, La Repubblica and La Stampa documents intersex genital mutilators Prof Marcello Cimador (pictured, chief paediatric urology surgeon and head of the supervising “multidisciplinary team”) and Dr Renato Venezia (gynaecology surgeon) at the “Department for Mother and Child” of the “Policlinico Universitario Paolo Giaccone di Palermo” (Sicily) publicly boasting of removing the uterus and vagina of a 2 year old intersex child (= IGM 3 Sterilising Procedures) plus performing a “reconstruction of the penis and the urethra” (= IGM 1 “Masculising” Surgeries) on the same infant, allegedly “at the request of the parents.”

This comes only three weeks after the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) reprimanded Italy for allowing IGM practices to continue with impunity.

The total ignorance and arrogance of the self-aggrandising genital mutilators excitedly lecturing on “sex-change”, “surgical strategy”, “intense mulidisciplinary teamwork” and “exceptional success” in conjunction with the tacit acquiescence and total failure to put things in perspective of the journalist(s) concerned, make it hard to further comment on this atrocity, except for once more reminding that such involuntary unnecessary surgeries constitute “Harmful Practice” (same as FGM) and “Inhuman Treatment” punishable as torture according to multiple UN human rights bodies.

Our hearts are with the child, seeking solace in the fact that such shameless boasting makes for valuable evidence in front of international human rights bodies, usually resulting in more stern reprimands for IGM practices to the state party concerned, obliging them to to “adopt legal provisions”, “hold perpetrators accountable” and “provide timely and effective access to remedies to victims of such trestment, including adequate compensation.”

>>> [ WARNING!!! ] IGM 1–3: “Masculinising”, “Feminising”, Sterilising Procedures
>>> Italy: UN-CRPD investigates Intersex Genital Mutilations
>>> UN-CRPD reprimands Italy for Intersex Genital Mutilations

>>> Download PDF (831kb)

“Academic Complicity in IGM Practices” – Daniela Truffer, Surrey 23.09.2016

March 21, 2021September 24, 2016 by StopIGM.org

In the following I’d like to address a sometimes difficult or even painful topic, but one that I feel needs to be addressed, particularly at a symposium like this for scientists and researchers that hopefully want to do better than those who mutilated me and countless of my peers. I mean the topic of arguably mostly unintentional and unconscious complicity of academic intersex researchers with the perpetrators of IGM practices.

It’s an obvious fact that academic research on intersex is usually undertaken at universities that also practice experimental, involuntary, non-urgent genital surgery and other procedures on intersex children. And that also the non-medical research is often relying on collaboration with doctors or on medical data.

As a consequence, from my perspective academic intersex researchers tend to be hesitant about too openly criticising non-consensual genital surgery and other treatments, and adequately framing them as serious human rights violations. Because by doing so they would have to criticise their own institution and peers, and potentially harm their careers.
Nonetheless, in my experience academic research on intersex without acknowledging and addressing academic complicity inevitably leads to biased and skewed results which again constitute and reinforce academic complicity.

As a typical example, which shall remain unreferenced as it may be too close to home, and I would like the discussion to be about facts and mechanisms and not about persons, one typical example is when involuntary non-urgent genital surgery, sterilising and other procedures on intersex children in western clinical academic context are described as normalising interventions whereas the same procedures outside a clinical academic context for example in Africa are described as mutilations.

Or, when academic researchers address violence against intersex people, they only include mobbing on the street or hate speech and other things which mostly are experienced by LGBT but not by intersex people, while intersex genital mutilations are filed under health issues or health care.

At the same time, academic researchers tend to conveniently ignore that IGM practices also in health care settings constitute a crime that must be stopped by criminalisation and adequate sanctions, but instead propose to stop IGM by having academic discussions with the perpetrators.

In addition, as Koyama and Weasel already established in 2002 (PDF), academic intersex research tends to frame intersex as a gender/identity/LGBT issue instead, while neglecting key human rights frameworks including harmful practice and torture, thus “potentially unintentionally perpetrating the invisibility and objectification of intersex people.”

Similarly, academic researchers too often don’t distinguish between mutilated intersex people and those who weren’t mutilated. Truth is, the vast majority of intersex children have been mutilated, but when it comes to intersex people being represented in the media and in academia, it’s usually the opposite.

Same as to my knowledge research on counselling needs of intersex children, where the focus is on LGBT issues like non-binary identities and discrimination, whereas the counselling needs of intersex children suffering from trauma or OCD due to IGM practices is often ignored, as are the counselling needs of parents experiencing guilt as a result of having „consented“ to harmful surgeries on their children.

From my perspective, these are seriously underresearched psychosocial needs of intersex children and their parents, and adequately addressing them would at the same time help to improve their quality of life and overcome academic complicity.

Thank you.

3 Articles on NZ questioned over IGM by UN-CRC on GayNZ

March 21, 2021September 24, 2016 by StopIGM.org

Thanks and kudos to GayNZ for being the first media outlet to report on the recent review of NZ (transcription) by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) during its 73rd session – thrice:

>>> Report on the intersex Q&A (19.9.)
>>> Comment on the “shameful silence” in the Gov replies (23.9.)
>>> The main body of the private ITANZ NGO report (24.9.)

(No thanks and kudos however for repeatedly reproducing our transcription and photo without giving a link to the source and no credit at all respectively, and for partially not being able to spell out StopIGM.org in another instance.)

Let’s hope that also mainstream media will pick up this important topic – latest when NZ is going to be reprimanded in about a week or so!

>>> TRANSCRIPTION > NZ Questioned over IGM by UN-CRC – Gov flatly denies – twice!

Intersex Genital Mutilations in NZ: 2016 UN-CRC Report
Human Rights Violations Of Persons With Variations Of Sex Anatomy
IGM in NZ • Children sent abroad for surgery • A Harmful Practice
>>> Download (PDF 720 kb)

>>> Download PDF (831kb)

LIVE > South Africa Questioned Over Intersex Genital Mutilations by UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) – Gov Acknowledges!

March 21, 2021September 19, 2016 by StopIGM.org

UN-CRC 73rd Session @ Palais Wilson, Geneva 19.09.2016, 09:55h CET:
Waiting for the South African Delegation …

After NZ’s embarrassing flat-out denial (“no surgery from 2006”) despite evidence to the contrary, today it’s the turn of South Africa to be questioned over Intersex Genital Mutilations at the 73rd Session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on Mon 19 September 10–13h + 15–18h CET >>> watch online!
StopIGM.org is reporting LIVE from Palais Wilson in Geneva, expecting tough questions also for ZA, and both South Africa and New Zealand to be reprimanded by 30 September (or soon after).

Session 1, Mon 19.09.2016 10:00–13:00h CET

10:05h: Session has started, the livestream is on. Head of South African Delegation, Deputy Minister of the Department of Social Development, Ms Hendrietta Ipeleng Bogopane-Zulu’s opening remarks.

10:16h: First round of questions by CRC ZA task force members, CRC Vice Chairperson Sara de Jesús Oviedo Fierro starting. Asks about continuation of actin plan, lack of data collection and implementation, lack of support for civil society … participation and children’s right to be heard, regarding the childhood act …

10:32h: CRC task force member Jorge Cardona Llorens (of CRC71 France fame) now on, aks on measures adopted and budgetary measures to promote chidren’s rights … best interest of the child … non-discrimination … right to life …

10:41h: CRC task force member Olga Khazova asking about married children …

10:44h: CRC task force member Maria Rita Parsi continuing with question on violence against children … corporal punishment … bullying in school … barriers to accessing justice … cultural and traditional prejucide … forced marriage … male circumcision …loss of genitals after initiation … virginity tests … genital mutilation … polygamy … no intersex children …

10:55h: 10 minutes pause …

10:16h: Session resumes with first round of responses … Head of Delegation reponds on action plan, children with disabilities, indigenous children … budget … accountability … cultural issues … circumcison … ukuthwala … convictions against circumcisers …

11:32h: First round of follow-up questions, CRC task force member Sara de Jesús Oviedo Fierro

11:34h: CRC member Kirsten Sandberg (of CRC68 Switzerland, CRC 72 UK + Nepal fame!) follows up on harmful practice on intersex children, still undergoing surgery in South Africa when too young to give consent, are you aware of the practice? What measures are you taking? YAY!! 🙂 Unofficial Transcription:

« While we are talking about harmful practices, I wonder about intersex children. As far as I could hear that issue was not raised, and we know that intersex children are still undergoing surgery in your country, when they are, well, just newborns and also later too small to give their consent or to have their autonomy respected in that regard. So I wonder, are you aware of this practice on intersex children, who would be born with, well you could call it unclear gender, unclear genitals, and so there’s been this medical practice of assigning them a gender or a sex, from the very beginning, which has been seen to be harmful to children in the long run. So I would like to hear your views and what measures are you taking in that regard. »

11:35h: Kirsten Sandberg also aks about measures to protect children with albinism from violence?

11:36h: CRC task force member Olga Khazova follows up on medical circumcision in school …

11:37h: CRC member Oussuma also follows up on circumcision in schools, and lack of response on virginy tests …

11:38h: Head of South African Delegation, Deputy Minister, Department of Social Development Ms Hendrietta Ipeleng Bogopane-Zulu answers that no circumcision are happening in schools, only in hospitals. Answers on virginty testing … violence on children with albinism … intersex children will be answered by Mr Dangor when he’ll get the floor … hate speech …

11:48h: CRC task force member Olga Khazova follows up on legal age of 12 for sexual consent …

11:51h: South African Delegatin member Mr Zane-Udien Dangor (Deputy Minister’s Special Advisor, Department of Social Development) replies to intersex children now … admits that being intersexed is a sexual characteristic, not a medical condition … that harmful practices are done to intersex children … engaging with university clinics, but only in early stages … IMPRESSIVE!! 😮 Unofficial Transcription:

« [Undiscernible] is the issue raised I think by Madame Sandberg around intersex children, and [undiscernible] essentially harmful practices linked to that. I think as a government we do regognise that being intersex is a sexual characteristic and not a medical condition, but at the same time we recognise that there are still practices where newborns and young children are being, surgeries are performed on them which are harmful. So we are now beginning a process in its early stages, to acknowledging that it’s happening, to engage with universities, particularly the university children’s clinics and other medical practitioners around the fact that this is not a medical condition, that surgeries performed at a very young stage are harmful and that it needs to stop. So we will be engaging with all the relevant stakeholders on that. »

11:56h: Answer on ukuthwala: is a practice protected by constitution, but abuses are punished severely …

12:06h: Corporal punishment in school is abolished and a criminal offense, corporal punishment at home is planned to be discussed in parliament …

12:07h: Kirsten Sandberg follows up on corporal punishment at home …

12:15h: Answers on social media and protections for children in films …

12:31h: Second round of questions by CRC task force members …

12:42h: Children in prison … armed conflict …

12:53h: Refugee children …

13:01h: Session going overtime, follow-up questions on drugs, drinking, HIV/AIDS …

13:05h: Session closed, to be continued 15:00h.

After the session: I briefly spoke with Mr Zane-Udien Dangor, expressing appreciation for his open and straightforward answer, and suggesting legislation might help to convince hesitant doctors, which he agreed with. He stated the Department would work together with local NGOs, and that he’d read our NGO report as well and that it contained valuable research on South African university clinics. So let’s hope after his good answer the South African Government will follow-up with similar policy, as well as with implementation, enforcement and acces to redress for survivors …

Session 2, Mon 19.09.2016 15:00–18:00h CET

15:05h: Session resumed. Answers by Head of Delegation on schools … circumcision …

15:17h: Answers and follow-up questions on the Human Rights Commisssion … independant follow-up mechanism …

15:24h: Witchcraft and related violence on children, Muti mutilations, a number of people have been persecuted … hazardous substances …

15:32h: Teenage pregnancies, death in childbirth … Data collection measures and tools … foster care … families and care givers …

15:54h: Orphans with HIV/AIDS … disclosure to child required, to family only “when needed” … answers on adoptions … (direct) maintenance payments … enforcement of maintenance payments …

16:21h: Answers on children with disabilities … white paper … 7.5% of South African population are people with disabilities …

16:35h: 10 min pause …

16:50h: Children with disabilities continued … children in prison … naturalisation of children of foreign parents born in ZA …

17:16h: Follow-up questions on high number children in pre-trial detention … are there no children’s courts, youth courts?

17:26h: Answers on measures against sexual violence in schools …

17:35h: Answers on children and drugs … cut short because …

17:37h: 1st round of questions re: OP-SC (Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography) now, for tomorrows OP-SC session …

18:02h: Session closed …

>>> Last Week @ CRC73: New Zealand “not aware” of ongoing Mutilations

>>> Download PDF (831kb)

Today > UN-CRC questions South Africa over Intersex Genital Mutilations – NZ “not aware” of ongoing practice

March 21, 2021September 19, 2016 by StopIGM.org

Intersex NGO Reports by StopIGM.org for the 73rd Session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC73)

Press Release by StopIGM.org, 19.09.2016:

Last Week > New Zealand “not aware” of ongoing Mutilations

Even after 16 UN reprimands for IGM practices so far, it remains business as usual for Govs to issue full denials during treaty body reviews, often with some pinkwashing to boost (to which Committees usually respond with yet another reprimand).

New Zealand’s official defender of IGM doctors, paediatrician and Chief Adviser of the Ministry of Health, Dr Patrick “Dr Pat” Tuohy proved to be no exception. Winning zero points for originality, Dr Pat tried to pull a switcheroo by changing the subject from involuntary non-urgent tretament on intersex children to – wait for it – “gender reassignement surgery”:

“The information from hospital coding records show that no surgery has taken place in New Zealand related to gender reassignment from the time 2006.”

When confronted by the Committee with the fact that on top of ongoing “masculining” domestic intersex surgeries, NZ also sends intersex children to Australia for “feminising” partial clitoral amputation and sterilising procedures, Dr Pat Tuohy affirmed his ignorance:

“I’m not aware whether any children or adolescents under the age of 18 have received funding for the High-Cost Treatment Pool for genital surgery oversees related to DSD.”

>>> Full Unofficial Transcript + Dr Tuohy on why IGM isn’t really a human rights violation
>>> Shadow Report “IGM in New Zealand” (PDF)

Today > CRC investigates IGM in South Africa

Based on publications by Sally Gross / Intersex South Africa (ISSA), public personal testimony by Nthabiseng Mokoena, the 2016 ACHPR NGO report by Legal Resources Centre, Iranti-org and Gender DynamiX, own research and personal communications, the Thematic NGO Report to CRC by StopIGM.org provides evidence of

IGM still being perpetrated in all major South African University Children’s Clinics
the complicity of the state
infanticide of intersex newborns
victims of infant “Muti” genital mutilations also being submitted to IGM as “therapy”.

>>> Full Shadow Report (PDF)

>>> Download PDF (831kb)

TRANSCRIPTION > NZ Questioned over Intersex Genital Mutilations by UN Committee on the Rights of the Child – Gov Flatly Denies – Twice!

December 3, 2023September 18, 2016 by StopIGM.org

UPDATE 2017 (see below): NZ Gov admits to IGM 2 in NZ and abroad!Review of New Zealand @ UN-CRC 73rd Session, Palais Wilson, Geneva 16.09.2016:
NZ Delegation members on the panel during Session 3, Head Minister Anne Toley on the left
(below her: Dr Patrick Tuohy, Chief Adviser, Ministry of Health, who ‘answered’ on IGM)

At the 73rd Session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) it was the turn of NZ to be questioned over Intersex Genital Mutilations on Thu 15.9. 15-18h CET + Fri 16.9. 10-13h + 15-18h CET >>> archived video 1 | 2 | 3
StopIGM.org reported LIVE [ original full report ] from Palais Wilson in Geneva, expecting tough questions for NZ, and both New Zealand and South Africa to be reprimanded by 30 September.

Unofficial transcriptions of all intersex relevant questions and answers plus minutes of other related items are collected below.

Summary

It’s a shame how the responsible NZ Delegation member, paediatrician (!!) Dr Patrick Tuohy, consistently and blanketly denied the ongoing IGM practices in NZ, and every time tried to shift the discussion to trans issues instead (“surgical gender assignment”). Unfortunately, this was helped by somewhat unhelpful wording in some NZ reports and by the Committee, using the euphemism “normalising surgery” instead of the usual descriptive UN language “involuntary non-urgent treatment” or “non-consensual unnecessary treatment”. Luckily, intersex advocates profited from the NZ NHRIs delegation present in Geneva (particularly the NZ Human Rights Commission) also intervening with the Committee to set the record straight and to ensure a follow-up question. Reagrding the mindset of the NZ delegation informing their flat-out denials, a few words with Dr Tuohy after the 3rd Session proved insightful (see minutes below).

Session 1, Thu 15.09.2016, 15-18h CET >>> VIDEO

15:48h: Harmful practices! CRC expert and Vice-Chairperson Ms. Amal Salman Aldoseri (Bahrain) is asking about intitiatives to legally prohibit unnecessary surgeries on intersex children, as well as regarding social support services available for intersex children and families, and education programs on intersex! YAY!!! 🙂
Unofficial Transcription:

« On harmful practices, I have a question on intersex. What efforts are put together to legally prohibit the practice of genital normalisation surgery on intersex children, until they reach an age, where they can give their view on an informed consent, and what social support services and accompanying financial allocations are made available to intersex children and their families? And what educational programs are available for intersex children and their families, as well [as] for other children on intersexuality? »

17:26h: Answer on intersex children by NZ Delegate Dr Patrick Tuohy (Paediatrician, Chief Adviser, Ministry of Health, Wellington, NZ), admits no legally binding protections to prevent involuntary surgeries are in place, and at the present there are also no plans to introduce any, refers to overview of Medical Council instead … Mentions multidisciplinary network of endocrinologists and surgeons, claims all parents are given access to peer support, mentions the figure of 30 intersex children born annually … Claims no IGM practices having taken place since 2006! Consistently tries to deflect to “gender reassignment” instead – pinkwashing as per usual 🙁 Unofficial Transcription:

Anne Tolley (Head of Delegation and Minister for Social Development): « I’d like Pat Tuohy to address the question around education programs available for intersex children and their families. »

Dr Patrick Tuohy (Paediatrician, Chief Adviser, Ministry of Health, Wellington, NZ): « In respect to intersex. There was a question with three parts. The first was, do we have a legally binding system to prevent genital normalization on children? The answer is that we do not currently have a legislative framework for this, and there is no plans in place for that at the present time.

However, all New Zealand citizens are covered by the health and disability bill of rights, and all medical practitioners work under the authority of the Medical Council of New Zealand.

We have a multidisciplinary network of surgeons and endocrinologists who discuss all cases related to gender whether the [undiscernible] practices conservative treatment, which is effectively no gender reassignment, surgical gender reassignment.

We have around 30, between maybe 20 to 30 children a year. The network of surgeons and endocrinologists is confident that no medical practitioners are practicing outside of the group.

The information from hospital coding records show that no surgery has taken place in New Zealand related to gender reassignment from the time 2006.

In social support services to intersex children and their families the parents are given a chance from within the commissions involved in that network to talk to other parents and family members of children with intersex conditions and the entire family is offered peer support.

I’m not aware if we have any specific educational programs for intersex children in a formal sense, apart from that informal network that is available and I don’t know whether we have anything in the education realm for that, I think not, and we could, I’d come back with some further information tomorrow if that was required. »

Session 2, Fri 16.09.2016, 10-13h CET >>> VIDEO

10:01h: The session continues. Beforehand, I was able to talk to NZ National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) representatives (Children’s Commissioner and Human Rights Commission), and share newly received additional evidence (thank you!) of the NZ High Cost Treatment Pool to this day financing partial clitoris amputations on children with “Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH)” oversees, which confirms the evidence presented in our Thematic NGO Report. I was informed they had also seen the evidence proving the flat-out gov denial (see transcript above) was just that, a denial, and that they would too raise this with the Committee. So we’ll have to see if there are any follow-up questions today. But even if there aren’t, we remain confident, as it’s business as usual for govs to issue full denials in treaty body reviews (often with some pinkwashing on top) – to which the Committee usually answers with yet another reprimand …

10:50h: CRC expert Jorge Cardona Lorens asks if involuntary sterilisation of children with disabilities is still taking place. Unofficial Transcription:

« Is there still sterilisation of children with disabilities with the parental consent? »

10:54h: NZ Delegation member Dr Patrick Tuohy (Paediatrician, Chief Adviser, Ministry of Health) admits to cases of NZ parents going oversees to have children with disabilities sterilised, and also in NZ “after any other means had been found ineffective” (!!) Unofficial Transcription:

« With respect to sterilization of children, you are correct, the law in NZ still permits children to be sterilized with consent of their parents, if they are unable to make an informed decision, but not on the basis of age, on the basis of intellectual disability.

However, I want to point out that there is work being undertaken as part of our revised disability strategy which is a section where we’re working with disability groups within NZ to identify a process for ensuring bodily integrity of children and adults with disability, to ensure that that is addressed. And I would also point out that even though there are reports of this occurring on occasions, with the consent of the parents and there is one recent case of about seven, eight years ago, which the parents went overseas for the initiation of the program as it was not able to be done in NZ. Most clinicians were undertaking sterilization for example of a young woman would use that as a last resort, when every other method of managing instruction [?] or some other issue had been tried and found to be ineffective. »

12:34h: CRC expert and Vice-Chairperson Ms. Amal Salman Aldoseri (Bahrain) asks a follow-up question on intersex children, mentioning surgeries financed via the NZ High Cost Treatment Pool and asking for numbers! 🙂 Unofficial Transcription:

« I would like to go back to violence, and particularly on children, intersex children. You have stated yesterday that there was no surgery operated on intersex children since 2006 in NZ, but I would like you to inform the Committee, if NZ government provided funding for genital normalization surgeries outside of NZ on intersex children of course, and were the funds for these surgeries come from special High-Cost Treatment Pool? If so, can you give us a number of these surgeries conducted outside? »

12:38h: Intersex follow-up answer postponed to the afternoon OP-SC session 15–18h CET.

Session 3 (OP-SC), Fri 16.09.2016, 15-18h CET >>> VIDEO

16:24h: NZ Delegation member Dr Patrick Tuohy (Paediatrician, Chief Adviser, Ministry of Health) (non-)answers the follow-up question on intersex children, basically repeating and embellishing his earlier flat-out denial: Claims IGM to be a thing of the past, with ealier shortcomings “effectively addressed” in the meantime and today the surgeons and endocrinologists would treat intersex children “non-operatively” unless absolutely medically necessary, claims there was no record immediately available for treatments oversees, again “misunderstanding” the actual question by consistently referring to “gender assignment surgeries” – how typical is that?! 🙁 Unofficial Transcription:

Anne Tolley (Head of Delegation and Minister for Social Development): « I’m going to ask Dr Pat Tuohy to just talk about intersex children and the funding, the questions around funding for outside of NZ, where the funds come from and the number. »

Dr Patrick Tuohy (Paediatrician, Chief Adviser, Ministry of Health, Wellington, NZ): « [Undiscernible] Minister, and I believe this was your question. NZ is of course aware of that historically there had been cases of early gender assignment, as was the current medical approach some decades ago.

But health officials are not aware of any incidence of this in recent years. As the Committee will be aware there has been a significant change in medical best practice consensus in this area over the last five to ten years in many countries including New Zealand. The current international and New Zealand consensus is that all none non-essential treatment in children with disorders of sexual development, which is the preferred name rather than intersex, should wait until the person with the DSD condition is older and can consent. When this cannot be the case, when an urgent surgery might need to be required, decisions about surgery made by the parents and extended family in consultation with medical doctors involved. Now, New Zealand does not have a legal or regular [undiscernible] framework in place for gender assignment surgery for children with DSD, as we believe that our results demonstrate that we have effectively addressed this issue through the processes that we have in place.

New Zealand has a multidisciplinary network of surgeons and endocrinologists who discuss all cases in which there may be concerns about a child’s gender, in accordance with international best practice the default practice is non-operative support that [undiscernible] network of endocrinologists and surgeons are confident that no medical practitioners in NZ are working in isolation.

They are aware of and support the evidence based guidelines described in the internationally supported clinical guidelines for the management of disorders of sex development in childhood. As these specialists are also the referring and ongoing clinicians involved in the care of children and maintain this responsibility in respect [undiscernible] to a centre within New Zealand or oversees.

Gender reassignment surgery for adults is covered by the provisions of the High-Cost Treatment Pool which is administered by the Ministry of health. Gender reassignment medical treatment, predominantly hormone treatment, is available in New Zealand through the district health boards, and if surgery is [undiscernible] in this context any state’s support through the High-Cost Treatment Poool is limited to people over the age of 18 years who are actively seeking the surgery.

I’m not aware whether any children or adolescents under the age of 18 have received funding for the High-Cost Treatment Pool for genital surgery oversees related to DSD. It may be possible to determine this, but review of individual files may be required, and that could take some time. So while we could [undiscernible] team to get that back to you I suspect that going through the files would take more than a few days – over a weekend. OK. »

After the Session: I spoke briefly to Dr Patrick Tuohy, making sure he got a copy of our thematic NGO report (which he said he had studied in advance), though it was somewhat of a challenge getting a word or two in inbetween. Dr Tuohy’s standpoint was that there wasn’t sufficient proof of IGM practices still taking place, as “hypospadias repair” from his point of view wouldn’t count, and the sources given for NZ children operated on in Australia (from 2013 and 2009) were too old to contradict his claim that surgery had stopped (latest in 2006). He further argued he had studied the framework of harmful practices and found that it was not applicable to IGM practices anyway, as from his viewpoint intersex surgeries wouldn’t fit the definitions stipulated therein (apparently despite stating he had studied our NGO report he seemed unaware that over the last 2 years, CRC has so far found IGM practices to constitute a harmful practice 6 times).

UPDATE 2017: NZ Gov Admits to IGM 2 in NZ and Abroad!

In recently published >>> additional Gov Replies to CRC (PDF), the New Zealand Government admits to IGM 2 “Feminising Genital Surgery” both domestic and abroad (while remaining silent on IGM 1 “Masculinising Genital Surgery” and IGM 3 Sterilising Procesure):

« 1. Has the High Cost Treatment Pool in the Ministry of Health previously funded genital surgery for intersex infants, provided at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne?

We have previously stated that there has been no surgery related to gender assignment in New Zealand since 2006. This statement was based on what now appears to be an incomplete review of hospital coding records. The Ministry of Health has undertaken a more detailed search and we would like to draw the committee’s attention to the following updated information on this issue.

Until 2007, the High Cost Treatment Pool in the Ministry of Health funded genital surgery for intersex infants, provided at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.. Between 1999 and 2007, the High Cost Treatment Pool funded treatment for 15 girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, for genital feminisation. The Royal Children’s Hospital then stopped providing this treatment.

More recently, two paediatric surgeons have begun to undertake these operations in New Zealand. These operations continue at about the same rate as before. The incidence of these cases in New Zealand is estimated to be around one or two a year. »

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