StopIGM.org

The 61st ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) in Gambia marked not only the 30th anniversary of the Commission, but also its arguably first panel discussion on intersex human rights in Africa, hosted by the Centre for Human Rights (University of Pretoria) and NGOs Iranti-org and SIPD-Uganda. >>> Full report

Panelist and ACHPR Commissioner Lawrence Murugu Mute (Kenya) “acknowledged that from the nature of the human rights violations a lot of work had to be done at national level and that clearly the African Commission had a role to play”.

The Commissioner had also clear words to say on the harmful misconception & misrepresentation of intersex as an LGBT issue – and how pervasive such harmful notions are also in Kenya: 

“Commissioner Mute was also concerned by the conflation of intersex and […] LGBT issues. ‘You have to do a lot of work in clarifying and explaining what intersex is all about. There is a lot of conflation maybe arising from the acronym LGBTI.’ He gave an example of the case R.M v Attorney-General and Others Petition 705 of 2007 in Kenya in which the judge delved into issues dealing with […] sexual minorities when clearly the person in the case was an intersex person.”

Exactly how widespread and unreflected this harmful “conflation” is also in Africa and particularly among its main promoters, i.e. LGBT representatives, can be gleaned from the fact that within the Centre for Human Rights, instead of a department with expertise particularly on harmful practices, of all things the “SOGIE (i.e. LGBT) Unit” is coordinating intersex issues, and that the Centre’s full report of the panel discussion authored by SOGIE Unit representative Tapiwa Mamhare repeatedly misrepresented intersex as just “[an]other LGBT issue[…]” and just “[an]other sexual minority group” – even within the very paragraph describing Commissioner Mute’s valid concern!! –, and how immediately after Commissioner Mute raised his concern, moderator Monica Tabengwa (ILGA) “chipped into the discussion highlighting that there were circumstances were it is necessary to collaborate with other sexual minority groups for solidarity purposes”, again misrepresenting intersex as just “[an]other sexual minority group” – how much longer?!

On a positive note, the list of recommendations presented by Tapiwa Mamhare of the Centre for Human Rights not only includes the most important measures to be implemented, but also gets the priorities right by listing the most urgent first:

• Prohibiting genital mutilation and medically unnecessary surgery or procedures on the sex characteristics of intersex children and to protect their physical integrity and respect their autonomy.
• Putting an end to infanticide and baby abandonment of intersex children.

We’d like to applaud ACHPR Commissioner Mute’s courageous and timely warning of the dangers of the pervasive conflation and misrepresentation of intersex as just “yet another LGBT issue” and just “yet another sexual minority”, and to urge everybody still engaging in such harmful misrepresentations to do better in the future.

And we’d like to thank the Centre for Human Rights, Iranti-org and SIPD-Uganda for facilitating this groundbreaking panel discussion, and for reporting about it.

>>> Full report: ACHPR panel discussion on intersex human rights in Africa

>>> Intersex human rights are under attack!!!

See also:
• 28 UN Reprimands for IGM – and counting …
• “Harmful Medical Practice”: UN, COE, ACHPR, IACHR condem IGM
• Intersex Genital Mutilations in South Africa: NGO Report (PDF, 926 kb) 
• East Africa > Intersex Survey Documents IGM, Infanticide, Abandonment
• Intersex Genital Mutilation on a Global Scale: CRC Briefing (PDF, 3.14 MB)
• UN-CRC condemns Intersex Genital Mutilation in South Africa
• UN-CRPD condemns Intersex Genital Mutilation in Morocco
• IGM: South Africa first state to recognise ongoing harmful practice 
• IDAHOT*: Let’s Talk About Intersex Appropriation …
• LGBTs Instrumentalizing intersex: “Excess of projection” – Georg Klauda
• UN Press Release misrepresents IGM as “sex alignment surgeries”
• UN Press Release misrepresents IGM survivors as “transsexual children”
• Intersex: Misrepresenting Genital Mutilation as “Health Care”
• UN-CCPR120: Pinkwashing of Intersex Genital Mutilation 
• UK: Misappropriation of Intersex Funding by LGBT Groups
• Denmark: Intersex children abused as cannon fodder for LGBT politics
• Australia: LGBT group misappropriating intersex funds – again!
• Academic Complicity in IGM Practices 
• “You shouldn’t always talk about the surgeries!”

IGM On A Global Scale: 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

“All humans are male, female, or hermaphrodite”: That’s what many, many generations of students, future lawyers, administrators and notaries learned when they studied the first few pages of their compulsory readings at a medieval or early modern university.
Source: Rolandino de Passageri (ca. 1215-1300), “Summa artis notariae” (= Law text book), Bologna ca. 1255 (here: Reprint Lyon 1559).  >>> More info

Hermaphrodites were recognized and protected by european civil and canon (=church) laws for more than 1000 years – STOP ERASING INTERSEX HISTORY!

“The idea that hermaphrodites in premodern Europe were persecuted on a regular base […] is still a common misconception. Indeed, it may be called a myth, and in several cases, this myth is quoted to support a dangerous narrative of progress: if hermaphrodites were killed as prodigies in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and adult hermaphrodites were persecuted in the later Middle Ages and in the 16th and 17th centuries, so the argument runs, then the Englightenment model that there were no ‚true‘ hermaphrodites was great progress; true, it re-defined double-sexed humans as ‚pseudo-hermaphrodites‘, but this pathologicalisation was still better than persecuting them, wasn’t it?”  >>> Christof Rolker (2016): fulltext

See also:
– The Racist Roots of Intersex Genital Mutilations (IGM)
– Academic Complicity in IGM Practices
– Instrumentalizing intersex: “The fact that LGBTs in particular embrace intersex is due to an excess of projection” – Georg Klauda (2002)

Photo: Nonviolent Intersex Protest #6 + Open Letter vs. 6th I-D$D, Rigshospitalet et al., Copenhagen 01.07.2017

Press Release by StopIGM.org, 13.11.2017:

The UN Child Rights Committee condemns involuntary genital surgery on intersex children in Denmark as a “harmful practice” (just like FGM), dismissing Government claims Denmark would only be “helping intersex children”. Denmark was already reprimanded by the UN Committee against Torture in 2015. Intersex NGOs demand immediate legislative action to protect intersex children.

During its 76th Session in Geneva, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) examined intersex genital mutilation in Danish University Children’s Hospitals. The Committee’s now published “Concluding observations” dated 26 October 2017 (= Intersex Awareness Day) unmistakably condemn “ongoing surgical interventions on intersex children” the lack of “redress to the child victims of such treatment”, and the lack of “adequate counselling and support for families with intersex children” (CRC/C/DNK/CO/5, full reprimand + download see below).

On the same counts, Denmark has already been reprimanded by the UN Committee against Torture (CAT), which in 2016 condemned unnecessary genital surgery on intersex children as a “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” falling under the prohibition of torture.

So far, not only the Danish Government, but also most Danish National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are still feigning ignorance of the human rights implications of intersex genital mutilation, or even continue to defend IGM, for example when questioned by CRC in Geneva:

“Denmark plans to continue this practice of helping intersex children through genital surgery” (Danish UN Delegation, Geneva 15 June 2017)

International intersex NGO StopIGM.org and Danish intersex advocate Ditte Dyreborg (EAHOO) provided CRC with evidence of the ongoing practice in public children’s hospitals allover Denmark and of the involvement of Danish doctors in international IGM Networks.

Intersex advocates warmly welcome these renewed strong reprimands for Denmark – and demand immediate action!

Daniela Truffer (StopIGM.org): “Governments and parliaments must finally introduce effective legislation to end intersex genital mutilation on the public health system. Perpetrators must be prosecuted and punished. IGM survivors must get equal access to redress and justice.”

We particularly appreciate that the Committee unmistakably considered IGM in Denmark as a “harmful cultural practice” (art. 24 (3) CRC) – just like female genital mutilation (FGM) –, and explicitly obliged Denmark to

“undertake investigation of incidents of surgical and other medical treatment of intersex children without informed consent and adopt legal provisions in order to provide redress to the child victims of such treatment, including adequate compensation” (CRC/C/DNK/CO/5, para 24 (c))

Intersex genital mutilation (IGM) is a serious violation of non-derogable human rights and MUST STOP!

Kind regards

Daniela Truffer, Markus Bauer / StopIGM.org       Ditte Dyreborg / EAHOO
 

Denmark: Full Binding CRC76 Intersex Recommendations
>>> Download: CRC/C/DNK/CO/5, 26 October 2017, on intersex: para 24
>>> Transcript + Video: Denmark questioned over IGM – Gov denies
>>> Intersex Genital Mutilation in Denmark – Thematic NGO Report: PDF
>>> IGM in Denmark – Government Fails to Act, NGO Update: PDF

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

[…]

Harmful practices [art. 24 (3)]

24. In view of ongoing surgical interventions on intersex children, the Committee recommends that the State party:

   (a)  Ensure that no one is subjected to unnecessary medical or surgical treatment during infancy or childhood, guarantee bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination for the children concerned and provide families with intersex children with adequate counselling and support;

   (b)  Develop and implement a child rights-based health-care protocol for intersex children, setting out the procedures and steps to be followed by health teams;

   (c)  Undertake investigation of incidents of surgical and other medical treatment of intersex children without informed consent and adopt legal provisions in order to provide redress to the child victims of such treatment, including adequate compensation;

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

>>> Intersex Genital Mutilation in Denmark: 2016 CRC Report (PDF)
>>> IGM in Denmark – Government Fails to Act: 2017 CRC Update (PDF)
>>> Transcript + Video: Denmark questioned over IGM – Gov denies
>>> CRC76 > Denmark: Intersex children abused as cannon fodder for LGBT politics
>>> CRC76 > UN Press Release calls IGM survivors “transsexual children” 
>>> CRC76 > Intersex: Misrepresenting Genital Mutilation as “Health Care”

>>> Intersex human rights at the UN are under attack!!!

• “Harmful Medical Practice”: UN, COE, ACHPR, IACHR condem IGM
• 28 UN Reprimands for Intersex Genital Mutilations – and counting …
• UN Committee for the Rights of the Child (CRC): IGM = Harmful Practice + Violence
• UN Committee against Torture (CAT) 2015: IGM = Inhuman Treatment or Torture
• UN Women’s Rights Committee (CEDAW): IGM = Harmful Practice
• UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD): Violation of Integrity
• UN Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) to examine IGM Practices
• CAT 2011: Germany must investigate IGM practices and compensate survivors!

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

Fifteen years ago, the German solidary gay sociologist Georg Klauda published his groundbreaking analysis on the psychological background of the ever-increasing instrumentalization of Intersex genital mutilation as a means to an end by third interest groups, specifically to advance LGBT, civil registration and gender politics. Like the similarly groundbreaking study on intersex appropriation in academic teaching and research by Emi Koyama and Lisa Weasel, also published in 2002 (fulltext PDF), and Raven Kaldera‘s pioneering 2001 publication (fulltext) and Chris Somers‘ 2002 article (PDF –> p. 20), Klauda’s hardly surprising findings are consistently ignored by the appropriators and swept under the carpet at every turn, even though this makes them even more complicit in the ongoing genital mutilation of defenseless intersex children – how much longer?!

To raise awareness of this issue, StopIGM.org presents an english translation of key excerpts of Georg Klauda’s shocking findings of LGBT persons and groups instrumentalizing intersex:

Georg Klauda: “About the Mutilation of Hermaphrodites”
Presentation 31.10.2002 @ House of Democracy and Human Rights, Berlin
(German fulltext | Print version | PDF) 

«When we talk about the mutilation of hermaphrodites, as I will do in the following, it makes sense to consider the danger of projection. We tend to perceive things only in a coordinate system that we are familiar with, and to project problems onto an object that are not the same as those of the object itself. When we then begin to talk about the topic, whether as journalists, academics or political activists, there is a danger that the problems we construct will mask the voices of those who want to report first-hand on their experiences.

Such forms of projection have been taking place for some years now in the field of genital mutilation of hermaphrodites. […]

I say this because there is a phenomenon to subsume hermaphrodites under such newer signs as queer and transgender. Such a de-differentiation is only beneficial to medicine, because it hides the specific problems of each particular group, on the one hand, and on the other hand because it reissues the concept of the Third Gender from the early 20th century, which is based on sexual medicine. […]

I think that hermaphrodites find themselves in this scenario only remotely, because they are not concerned with their self-definition, but with ending an invasive medical practice. Therefore often it is not themselves, but transsexuals as well as lesbians and gays who represent hermaphrodites in public. The fact that they in particular embrace this topic is due to an excess of projection. They do not see that their own set of problems, i. e. the problem of coming out and social recognition, is not that of hermaphrodites. They do not see that the unwanted adoption of hermaphrodites by the lesbian, gay and trans movement is tantamount to blindsiding and colonization, and is morally unacceptable because it masks the actual concerns of people with a medical experience of violence. […]

The queer and transgender models also create colonization cascades: lesbians and gays colonize transsexuals, transsexuals colonize transgenders, transgenders colonize hermaphrodites. […]

We will therefore have to get used to addressing hermaphrodites not as members of a minority but, in their own opinion, as victims of medical torture. […]»

>>> Intersex human rights are under attack!!!

See also:
– Academic Complicity in IGM Practices
– UK: Misappropriation of Intersex Funding by LGBT Groups
– Denmark: Intersex children abused as cannon fodder for LGBT politics
– Australia: LGBT group misappropriating intersex funds – again! 🙁
– “You shouldn’t always talk about the surgeries!” 

[ D e u t s c h ]

Suisse: Intersex-Protest + Open Letter to Minister Sommaruga + Fed Gov on on Human Rights Day, 10.12.2015

Après une visite d’État de Simonetta Sommaruga (PS), ministre de la Justice Suisse, à son homologue luxembourgeois Félix Braz (Verts), les deux ministères ont publié des communiqués de presse [ Suisse | Luxembourg ], dans lesquels ils affirment insolemment que le but de la visite était supposément, entre autres, d’améliorer la situation des personnes présentant des variations du développement sexuel (intersexes), ce qui a ensuite été répété sans le remettre en question dans divers médias [ Français: Tribune de Genève, 360° | Allemand: Blick, Watson ].

Le groupe de défense des droits de l’homme Zwischengeschlecht.org note que dans les deux pays, les enfants intersexes continuent d’être systématiquement mutilés aux génitaux peu après leur naissance, ces violations graves des droits de l’homme étant financées dans les deux pays directement par les Etats concernés, par exemple en Suisse par l’assurance invalidité (IV).

C’est pourquoi la Suisse a déjà été condamnée sans équivoque à quatre reprises ces dernières années par des organes de l’ONU (Comité des droits de l’enfant, 2015; Comité contre la torture, 2015; Comité des droits de la femme, 2016; Comité des droits de l’homme, 2017). Malgré cela, les deux gouvernements, y compris leurs ministères de la justice, continuent de permettre aux auteurs de mutiler en toute impunité et même de les protéger.

Zwischengeschlecht.org condamne la complicité des deux Etats dans l’actuelle mutilation génitale des enfants intersexes et l’hypocrisie que les dirigeants politiques veulent maintenant agir en tant qu’assistants des personnes intersexes en excluant les violations massives des droits de l’homme selon un modèle connu, et encore une fois contraire aux faits réduire la souffrance des personnes intersexes à des questions d’identité de genre et de l’état civil, et à continuer à les approprier politiquement sous discrimination et les «questions LGBT» pour distraire l’attention de leur complicité.

• L’ONU condamne les mutilations génitales sur les bébés intersexes (MGI)
• Le Parlament Européen condamne les Mutilations Génitales Intersexes (MGI)
• MGI en Suisse : “Traitement du passé” par la destruction des dossiers
• « Je ne suis pas un monstre » : Mutilateurs des bébés intersexes à Luxembourg
• Mutilations Intersexes : « Seule la peur du juge va bouger les choses »
• C’est pourquoi le Comité contre la Torture va condamner la France pour les MGI
• Mutilations Génitales Intersexes: L’ONU-CRC réprimande la France! 
• UN-CEDAW réprimande la France – pour la 3e fois: MGI = “Pratique préjudiciable”

On 26 October 2017, the US State Department issued a press release, proclaiming “solidarity with intersex persons and their advocates around the world” and “recogniz[ing] that intersex persons face violence […]. At a young age, intersex persons routinely face forced medical surgeries without free or informed consent. These interventions jeopardize their physical integrity and ability to live freely”, as well as calling for “[i]ncreased recognition, understanding and awareness of intersex persons and their human rights […].”

Predictably, the State Department however did NOT call for legislation to criminalise or adequately sanction Intersex Genital Mutilation and to ensure access to redress and justice for survivors, but merely “reaffirm[ed] our strong commitment to promoting a world where all persons can freely and equally express themselves with dignity […].”

My 2 cents: Let’s face it, the Obama administration threw intersex children under the bus (in favour of LGBT and transgender rights). So far, regarding intersex children, the Trump administration fares no different.

How much longer?! DEEDS, NOT WORDS!!!

See also:
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2013
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2015
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2016
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2017
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2018
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2019
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2023

>>> Intersex human rights are under attack!!!

Photo: Noviolent Intersex Protest #4 + Open Letter vs. 6th I-D$D et al., Copenhagen University 30.06.2017

26 October is Intersex Awareness Day.
This year, we are kicking back – and celebrate:

• 10 years of Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org

• 25+ UN Reprimands for Intersex Genital Mutilations

• 125+ Nonviolent Intersex Protests

• 250+ Media Appearances to Raise Awareness

We wish everyone a happy Intersex Awareness Day 2017!

On 26 October, Intersex People, Survivors, Partners, Families, Friends and Allies around the globe celebrate Intersex Awareness Day, commemorating the very first INTERSEX PROTEST in Boston in 1996 against the Annual Convention of the American Academy of Padiatrics (AAP), and in support of over 20 Years of Organised Struggle to End INTERSEX GENITAL MUTILATIONS.

•  Intersex Awareness Day 2013
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2015
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2016
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2018
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2019
•  Intersex Awareness Day 2023

>>> Intersex human rights at the UN are under attack!!!

• “Harmful Medical Practice”: UN, COE, ACHPR, IACHR condem IGM
• 25+ UN Reprimands for Intersex Genital Mutilations – and counting …
• UN Committee for the Rights of the Child (CRC): IGM = Harmful Practice + Violence
• UN Committee against Torture (CAT) 2015: IGM = Inhuman Treatment or Torture
• UN Women’s Rights Committee (CEDAW): IGM = Harmful Practice
• UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD): Violation of Integrity
• UN Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) to examine IGM Practices
• CAT 2011: Germany must investigate IGM practices and compensate survivors!

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

Photo: Nonviolent Intersex Protest vs. ‘4th I-D$D Symposium’, Glasgow, 09.06.2013: Video | Report | Open Letter

Press Release by StopIGM.org, IntersexUK, UK Intersex Association, 09.10.2017:

UN Disability Rights Committee condemns involuntary genital surgery on intersex children in the UK and Morocco. Also reprimands UK for misallocation of intersex funding. Intersex NGO Coalition demands immediate legislative action.

During its 18th Session in Geneva, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) examined intersex genital mutilation in NHS clinics. The Committee’s now published ‘Concluding observations’ unmistakably condemn ‘involuntary medical treatment’ of intersex persons on the NHS including ‘forced sterilisation’ and ‘corrective’ genital surgery, lack of ‘equal access to justice’ for victims, and the lack of consultation and effective participation of intersex organisations in decision-making processes concerning policies and legislation affecting them (CRPD/C/GBR/CO/1, full reprimand to the UK + download see below).

On the first two counts, the UK has already been reprimanded by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which in 2016 condemned unnecessary genital surgery on intersex children as a ‘harmful practice’ (just like FGM).

On occasion of the 18th CRPD session, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also obliged Morocco to ‘prohibit and criminalise’ involuntary surgeries on intersex personsand to ‘raise awareness of such practices as harmful’ (CRPD/C/MAR/CO/1, full reprimand to Morocco + download see below).

Intersex NGOs IntersexUK, The UK Intersex Association, StopIGM.org and intersex advocate Leslie Jaye provided CRPD with evidence of the ongoing practice allover the UK, personal testimony to the lifelong severe pain and suffering caused by IGM, and salient examples of intersex government funding being paid out to 3rd party LGBT organisations instead, or to “LGBTI” organisations without acual intersex representation and expertise, while intersex organisations continue to remain unfunded.

The intersex NGO Coalition warmly welcomes these renewed strong reprimands for the UK – and demands immediate action:

‘Governments and parliaments must finally introduce effective legislation to end intersex genital mutilation on the NHS. Perpetrators must be prosecuted and punished. IGM survivors must get equal access to redress and justice. And funding designated to support intersex organisations must no longer be misallocated to 3rd party groups.’

In Geneva, the UK tried in vain to sidestep Committee experts’ questions on intersex and IGM. Thankfully, CRPD Chairperson Theresia Degener refused to have the wool pulled over her eyes, but called the UK’s bluff:

‘You answered on female genital mutilation, but I was talking about intersex genital mutilation. And while it is commendable to give 45’000 pounds to the LGBTI community, it does not mean that this money reaches intersex persons and that the harmful practices which I mentioned yesterday, which this Committee and other Treaty Body Committees consider as ill-treatment and in some instances as torture, will be stopped, and I’m afraid that giving some money to civil society is not enough in order to stop serious human rights violations.’    >>> Full transcript + video

Intersex NGOs IntersexUK, The UK Intersex Association and StopIGM.org particularly appreciate that the Committee’s ‘Concluding observations’ to the UK include no less than 3 different binding recommendations on intersex and IGM under 3 different sets of articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), namely under Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse (art. 16), Protecting the integrity of the person (art. 17) and General principles and obligations (arts. 1-4).

And we appreciate that the Committee also explicitly obliged Morocco inter alia to ‘prohibit and criminalize the practice of corrective surgeries on intersex persons […] in the absence of prior and informed consent’ and to ‘raise awareness of such practices as harmful’.

Intersex genital mutilation (IGM) is a serious violation of non-derogable human rights and MUST STOP!
 

United Kingdom: Full Binding CRPD18 Intersex Recommendations
>>> Download: CRPD/C/GBR/CO/1, 3 October 2017, on intersex: paras 10-11, 38-41 
>>> Intersex Genital Mutilation in the UK – Thematic NGO Report: DOC | PDF
>>> IGM in the UK – Gov Fails to Act + Testimony, NGO Update: DOC | PDF
>>> UK Intersex NGO Coalition CRPD Statement 21.08.2017: DOC | PDF

 
A.  General principles and obligations (arts. 1-4)

[…]

10. The Committee is concerned about:

   (a)  The challenges facing organizations of persons with disabilities, including organizations representing women, children and intersex persons with disabilities, in accessing support and being consulted and actively involved in the implementation of the Convention;

   (b)  The lack of sufficient mechanisms to ensure the effective participation of all organizations of persons with disabilities in decision-making processes concerning policies and legislation in all areas of the Convention, such as the strategy entitled “Fulfilling Potential: making it happen”.

11. The Committee recommends that the State party:

   (a)  Allocate financial resources to support organizations representing persons with disabilities, including women and children with disabilities, and develop mechanisms to ensure the inclusive, strategic and active involvement of organizations of persons with disabilities, including women, children and intersex persons, in the planning and implementation of all legislation and measures that affect the lives of persons with disabilities;

   (b)  Establish mechanisms to secure the full participation of organizations of persons with disabilities in the design and implementation of strategic policies aimed at implementing the Convention across the State party, through objective, measurable, financed and monitored strategic action plans.

B.  Specific rights (arts. 5-30)

[…]

Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse (art. 16)

38. The Committee is concerned about abuse, ill-treatment, sexual violence and exploitation of women, children, intersex persons and elderly persons with disabilities, and the insufficient measures to prevent all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse against persons with disabilities. It is also concerned at reports of cases of disability hate crime, in the absence of consistent data collection and differences in legal provisions for sentencing different types of hate crime, particularly in England and Wales.

39. The Committee recommends that the State party, in close collaboration with organizations of persons with disabilities, and in line with target 16.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals:

   (a)  Establish measures to ensure equal access to justice and to safeguard persons with disabilities, particularly women, children, intersex persons and elderly persons with disabilities from abuse, ill-treatment, sexual violence and exploitation;

   (b)  Define comprehensively the offence of disability hate crime, and ensure appropriate prosecutions and convictions;

   (c)  Ensure that all facilities and programmes designed to serve persons with disabilities are effectively monitored by independent authorities, in accordance with article 16 (3) of the Convention.

Protecting the integrity of the person (art. 17)

40. The Committee is concerned that persons with disabilities, including women, intersex persons, girls and boys, reportedly continue to be subjected to involuntary medical treatment, including forced sterilization and conversion surgeries.

41. The Committee recommends that the State party repeal all types of legislation, regulations and practices allowing any form of forced intervention or surgery, and ensure that the right to free, prior and informed consent to treatment is upheld and that supported decision-making mechanisms and strengthened safeguards are provided, paying particular attention to women, intersex persons, girls and boys.
   

Morocco: Full Binding CRPD18 Intersex Recommendations
>>> Download: CRPD/C/MAR/CO/1, 25 September 2017, on intersex and IGM: paras 36-37

 
Protecting the integrity of the person (art. 17)

36.  The Committee notes with concern that persons with disabilities in the State party, particularly intersex persons with disabilities, are subjected to corrective surgeries and to the practice of forced sterilization, including forced chemical castration.

37.   The Committee recommends that the State party prohibit and criminalize the practice of corrective surgeries on intersex persons with disabilities, in the absence of prior and informed consent, and the practice of forced sterilization, including forced chemical castration. It also recommends that the State party raise awareness of such practices as harmful and strengthen mechanisms aimed at ensuring that the informed consent of persons with disabilities is given for any medical and surgical treatment.

>>> Intersex human rights at the UN are under attack!!!

See also:
• 26 UN Reprimands for IGM – and counting …
• “Harmful Medical Practice”: UN, COE, ACHPR, IACHR condemn IGM
• UN Committee for the Rights of the Child (CRC) 2015: IGM = Harmful Practice
• UN Committee against Torture (CAT) 2015: IGM = Inhuman Treatment or Torture
• UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR) to examine IGM Practices
• UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) condemns IGM
• 56th Session of Committee against Torture reprimands 4 Governments for IGM
• CAT 2011: Germany must investigate IGM practices and compensate survivors!

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

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)

A newly published >>> “Baseline Survey on intersex realities in East Africa – Specific focus on Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda” by SIPD Uganda | PDF documents serious human rights violation of intersex children including infanticide, intersex genital mutilation, abandonment and not being able to attend school. But also intersex adolescents and adults face ostracism, expulsion, harassment and curiosity rape, and intersex persons are often misrepresented as homosexuals. Ostracism, harassment and expulsion is also faced by parents of intersex children, particularly by mothers, who are considered to be witches or victims of witchcraft, and are abandoned by their husbands and in-laws.

Such massive abuses of intersex persons also in Africa have been recognised by the UN as a serious human rights violation, particularly by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Committee against Torture (CAT) and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRCPD), which already condemned such violations also in Africa (namely CRC regarding South Africa and CRPD regarding Morocco), but also by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), and also the Final declaration of the 2017 BanFGM Conference co-organised by the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) explicitly mentions “intersex genital mutilation” and called to “support and promote victims […] through the provision of essential services (medical, psychological and legal) free of charge”!

Some key findings of the SIPD Ugands baseline survey (fulltext | PDF) on infanticide, expulsion, sexualised violence, intersex genital mutilation, superstition, denial of housing, denial of school education, and misrepresentation as homosexuals:

Infanticide, expulsion, sexualised violence

«In all three countries in this survey, namely, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya when an intersex child is born, the family treats the birth with extreme secrecy – with intervention strategies limited to close family members. In all the responses we received, families will isolate the child from the general public. As standard treatment, the mother of such a child will be frowned upon, and most intersex infants will be killed shortly after birth. Those who are not killed face different forms of discrimination – for example, in Uganda intersex teenagers are forced to drop out of school and live a disempowered and secret life, often subjecting them to sexual violence in terms of curiosity rape and other forms of sexual and physical harassment. In Kenya, the family will send the intersex teenager away from home and from the village to find anywhere else to live and caution them never to return. In Rwanda, a few intersex young people have sought refuge in Nyamirambo camp for LGBTI destitute people but have been forced to leave for lack of safety and relevant services. Some have resorted to suicide. Usually superstition loom large as families consult witchdoctors, mediums and traditional healers for a solution. What would appear to be a positive story is for a scanty number of intersex people born into wealthy families, who avail them with medical information and where needed sex re-assignment surgeries. Even in these cases, the doctors were quick to note that no one is sure if the surgeries done are the right ones or if they will prove useful to the intersex child later on in their life.»

Intersex Genital Mutilation:

«There are many children in Uganda who have had involuntary surgical procedures and it has been parents and doctors who have spearheaded this. A mother in Mukono district said […] when this mother gave birth, the child had a very tiny penis that couldn’t be noticed. The husband wanted to know whether she gave birth to a boy or a girl and the in-laws were on her neck. There was an organization that helped her acquire medical help.It’s very unfortunate that the doctor who did the surgery didn’t tell her anything like implications and up today she is regretting why she made such a decision that her child should have a surgical procedure because what she was trying to protect, things just went worse as she was abandoned by the husband and the in-laws basing on all that happened since the surgery wasn’t a success but rather left emotional and physical scars.» (The full survey| PDF also contains photos of botched interventions – WARNING!)

Superstition, abandonment

«Women who give birth to intersex children are often considered to be witches or victims of witchcraft, and the intersex children are considered a bad omen to the family, which should be gotten rid of. The ridding takes the form of murders or abandonment. Many women are abandoned by their husbands and in-laws due to the news of such a birth. Most mothers of intersex children dump and abandon their intersex children for dead in pit latrines and lonely forest areas and run from their homes for fear of possible prejudice-driven crimes towards them by family or community members. It’s so unfortunate that the general East African society has always responded with denial, hostility and at best, silence, on these matters pertaining to sexual development and related health and rights concerns.»

«In Uganda if an intersex child is born in urban and rural areas of Uganda, it is considered to be a punishment for an offence the mother committed either in the present life or an earlier life. The child and the mother are expelled from the community, which is essential for survival. Therefore, many mothers kill their newborn baby, hoping that the child’s intersex remains undetected at the funeral, since other members of the community rarely touch the dead body during the funeral. And they continue to note that in Uganda we have failed to acknowledge that culture is not static it’s dynamic. This leading to sections of the communities all over the country to reproof intersex children as a population haunted by witch craft and as result basic care needs and health become a problems to these children in case they survive death.»

Denial of housing

«In Northern Uganda for example, intersex children are denied housing. They are separated from their siblings and put in remote huts on the peripheral of the homestead, further than where animals are kept. They argue that if this child is left to stay with siblings it’s very easy for this child to pass on the bad luck to other children in the family that are considered “normal”. There is another case in Rakai district where a child was moved from the main house and isolated in a small hut at the advice of the family’s in-laws. This was a measure to control the continuity of what is considered a bad omen in the family.

A typical homestead will have a main house and other sub houses. When an intersex child is born, they are removed from the main house and put into a small hut distanced from the main homestead to stop the bad omen affecting the entire family.»

Denial of school education

«The baseline found out that in Uganda and other East African countries, 90% of the intersex youth interviewed reported that they were forced to drop out of school because of the immense stigma and discrimination associated with the non-binary development of their intersex body.»

Misrepresentation as homosexuals

One intersex person in Masaka district was quoted saying: «“[..] [When] an intersex person passes [on the street], people will start arguing whether it’s a boy or a girl and consequently start to discuss his/her orientation and naming the intersex person all sorts of names. In fact since they fail in most cases to understand our bodies, they will think we are the ones who are the homosexuals.”»

>>> “Baseline Survey on intersex realities in East Africa – Specific focus on Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda” by SIPD Uganda | PDF

See also:
• 26 UN Reprimands for IGM – and counting …
• “Harmful Medical Practice”: UN, COE, ACHPR, IACHR condemn IGM

IGM on a Global Scale: 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

It’s important to challenge paediatricians and other actors trying to masquerade serious human rights violations as “legitimate medical therapy” – particularly now that IGM perpetrators are aware they’re increasingly in the public spotlight, and as a result are doubling their efforts to muddying the waters.
However, with the wide range of different interventions on intersex children, and the many different forms of IGM practices, not every procedure is always easy to ascertain.

Nonetheless, in most cases this can be done quickly enough:

To determine whether a procedure performed on a child or person with intersex variations is legit or criminal, from an international human rights perspective it’s helpful to differentiate between 1. medical crimes, 2. rehabilitation for survivors and 3. genuine intersex specific health care – and to examine if the procedure in question falls into one of these categories:

1. Medical crimes = all involuntary, non-urgent procedures imposed because of an intersex variation, including sterilising, feminising, masculinising, surgical, hormonal and other procedures = serious violations of non-derogable human rights as recognised by UN Treaty bodies, including genital mutilation, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment falling under the prohibition of torture, harmful practices, non-consensual scientific and medical experimentation, institutionalised violence
2. Rehabilitation = all voluntary procedures needed as a result of previous serious violations because of an intersex variation, including adequate trauma counselling = in itself also a non-derogable right
3. Health care = all voluntary and/or urgent procedures needed because of an intersex variation, including adequate psychosocial and peer support for persons concerned and families

If one of the above categories applies, the nature of a procedure on a child or person with intersex variations can then be identified accordingly:

a)    If the procedure falls under 1., it’s a medical crime (which according to international law must be investigated, perpetrators prosecuted and punished, and victims ensured access to redress and justice, including adequate compensation and as full rehabilitation as possible).

b)    If the procedure falls under 2. or 3., it’s legit.

Particularly in a human rights context, it’s further important to note that despite that all procedures under 1.–3. invariably take place in health care settings, and despite that legit procedures under 2. Rehabilitation also do help stabilising or improving health and can (and should!) legitimaly be offered as health care, only if a procedure falls under 3., it’s actually (intersex specific) health care and therefore a genuine health care issue, and ONLY THEN it should be framed and addressed accordingly.

On the other hand, all procedures falling under 1. Medical crimes or 2. Rehabilitation should NEVER be misrepresented as “health care issues”, but MUST ALWAYS be correctly framed and addressed under overriding (!) serious violations of non-derogable human rights and the non-derogable obligation of states to protect every child and person from such serious violations including genital mutilation and cruel and inhuman treatment, and to ensure redress for victims, including access to justice, adequate compensation, and as full rehabilitation as possible, as enshrined in various international human rights treaties recognised as applicable by the relevant UN Treaty bodies, namely CAT, CRC, CCPR, CRPD and CEDAW (however not CESCR, which does not include non-derogable rights).

(And only after the overriding serious violations of non-derogable human rights because of IGM have been firmly established and addressed, thereafter the consequential implications of IGM also in lower-ranking human rights law and corresponding fields can then be addressed adequately, including implications on health care, which can then also be addressed according to the right to the highest attainable standard of health enshrined in various conventions, now also beyond the most relevant ones covering non-derogable rights, see above CAT, CRC, CCPR, CRPD, …)

>>> Intersex human rights at the UN are under attack!!!

See also:
• ‘Only the Fear of the Judge Will Make IGM Perpetrators Change’
• 26 UN Reprimands for IGM – and counting …
• “Harmful Medical Practice”: UN, COE, ACHPR, IACHR condemn IGM
• UN Committee for the Rights of the Child (CRC) 2015: IGM = Harmful Practice
• UN Committee against Torture (CAT) 2015: IGM = Inhuman Treatment or Torture
• UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR) to examine IGM Practices
• UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) condemns IGM
• 56th Session of Committee against Torture reprimands 4 Governments for IGM
• CAT 2011: Germany must investigate IGM practices and compensate survivors!

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

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)