NSW Legislative Council calls for implementation of Senate report on sterilisation
A motion calling for the implementation of the Commonwealth Senate committee report on the involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people passed the NSW Legislative Council at 2.45pm today. The text also acknowledges Intersex Awareness Day. The motion was put forward to the upper house of the State Parliament by Dr Mehreen Faruqi (Greens); it needed cross party support to be passed.
4. INTERSEX AWARENESS DAY (Formal Business)
Dr Faruqi moved, according to notice:
- That this House notes that:
(a) Intersex Awareness Day is recognised on 26 October every year,
(b) people with intersex variations face lifelong discrimination and stigmatisation for their sex differences,
(c) intersex people, particularly children, are often subject to disturbing and invasive medical interventions to “correct” their sex differences,
(d) there are serious human rights concerns with the way that intersex people are currently considered and treated by the medical community and in general, and
(e) broader social awareness of intersex variations remains drastically underdeveloped, and this must change.
- That this House calls on the Government to:
(a) acknowledge the human rights of people with intersex variations, and
(b) work with the Australian Government to implement the recommendations of the 2013 Australian Senate Community Affairs Committee report on the ‘Involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people in Australia’.
Question put and passed.
This is an important moment for the intersex movement in Australia, and we would like to extend our deepest thanks to Dr Faruqi, and all the members of the Legislative Council for passing this motion.
Source documents
More information
- Statement on the Senate report ‘Involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people in Australia’ (29 October 2013)
- First cross-party speeches on intersex health in the Australian Senate (25 March 2014)
- Submission on the medical “normalisation” of intersex people, including infants, children and adolescents – concluding submission to a Senate Inquiry on involuntary or coerced sterilisation (12 September 2013)
- The ethics of genetic selection against intersex traits (29 April 2014)
- Medicare is now gender neutral (24 July 2013)