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:
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).
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”.
See also:
• 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): Inhuman Treatment
• UN Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) to examine IGM Practices
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