Intersex human rights
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals, that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies.
[2][3][4] Intersex infants and children, such as those with ambiguous outer genitalia, may be surgically and/or hormonally altered to fit perceived more socially acceptable sex characteristics.
[7][8] These issues are recognized as human rights abuses, with statements from UN agencies,[9][10] the Australian parliament,[11] and German and Swiss ethics institutions.
[14] In April 2015, Malta became the first country to outlaw nonconsensual medical interventions to modify sex anatomy, including that of intersex people.
[22] The organization has previously highlighted evasive government statements to UN Treaty Bodies that conflate intersex, transgender and LGBT issues, instead of addressing harmful practices on infants.
[19] Such interventions have been criticized by the World Health Organization, other UN bodies such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and an increasing number of regional and national institutions.
These include the Swiss National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics (2012),[12] the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (2013),[9] and the Australian Senate (2013).
[15][16] In the same year, the Council of Europe became the first institution to state that intersex people have the right not to undergo sex affirmation interventions.
The experts also called for the investigation of alleged human rights abuses, the ability to file claims for compensation, and the implementation of anti-discrimination measures:[28] In countries around the world, intersex infants, children and adolescents are subjected to medically unnecessary surgeries, hormonal treatments and other procedures in an attempt to forcibly change their appearance to be in line with societal expectations about female and male bodies.
Due to the decision of the Constitutional Court of Colombia on Case 1 Part 1 (SU-337 of 1999), doctors are obliged to inform parents on all the aspects of the intersex child.
[15][16] The Act recognizes a right to bodily integrity and physical autonomy, explicitly prohibiting modifications to children's sex characteristics for social factors: 14.
15 of the Ministry of Health, unnecessary and non-consensual surgeries, procedures or medical treatments on intersex newborns, children and adolescents are prohibited.
18 the suspension of unnecessary normalization treatments for intersex children, including irreversible surgery, until they reach an age when they can make decisions on their own.
[46][47][48][49] A law that provides for a general ban on operations in children and adolescents with 'variants of gender development' ('Varianten der Geschlechtsentwicklung') was passed in the German parliament on March 25, 2021.
[50][51] According to a report in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt, the law is intended to strengthen the self-determined decision-making of children and adolescents and avoid possible damage to their health.
Georgiann Davis argues that such discrimination fails to recognize that many people with intersex traits lead full and happy lives.
[57] Morgan Carpenter highlights the appearance of several intersex variations in a list by the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority of "serious" "genetic conditions" that may be de-selected, including 5 alpha reductase deficiency and androgen insensitivity syndrome, traits evident in elite women athletes and "the world's first openly intersex mayor".
Such de-selection or selective abortions are incompatible with ethics and human rights standards due to the discrimination perpetrated against intersex people on the basis of their sex characteristics.
[16][27] In May 2016, the United States Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement explaining Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act stating that the Act prohibits "discrimination on the basis of intersex traits or atypical sex characteristics" in publicly funded healthcare, as part of a prohibition of discrimination "on the basis of sex".
The surgeon was ordered to pay €100,000 in compensatory damages[78][79] after a legal battle that began in 2007, thirty years after the removal of her reproductive organs.
claims to have suffered” but that a reasonable official in 2006 did not have fair warning from then-existing precedent that performing sex assignment surgery on sixteen-month-old M.C.
Doctors stated that they "were only acting according to the norms of the time - which sought to protect patients against the psychosocial effects of learning the full truth about their chromosomes.
The Council of Europe[14] and World Health Organization[94] acknowledge the necessity for improvements in information provision, including access to medical records.
[95] According to the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, few countries have provided for the legal recognition of intersex people.
Firstly, it is about intersex people who have been issued a male or a female birth certificate being able to enjoy the same legal rights as other men and women.
[105][106] In 2013, Germany became the first European nation to allow babies with characteristics of both sexes to be registered as indeterminate gender on birth certificates, amidst opposition and skepticism from intersex organisations who point out that the law appears to mandate exclusion from male or female categories.
"[14] The Issue Paper argues that "further reflection on non-binary legal identification is necessary": Mauro Cabral, Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE) Co-Director, indicated that any recognition outside the “F”/”M” dichotomy needs to be adequately planned and executed with a human rights point of view, noting that: “People tend to identify a third sex with freedom from the gender binary, but that is not necessarily the case.
