Anti-discrimination (page 5 of 13)

For an introduction to these issues, see our page on discrimination

detail of cover image

New publication “Intersex: Stories and Statistics from Australia”

We announce that the 2015 survey of people born with atypical sex characteristics has now been published. This survey was an independent research project led by Dr Tiffany Jones. The book has been peer reviewed and published by an academic publisher, Open Book Publishers. The strong team of co-authors includes a reference group of community…
Read more →

Arcus Forum event flyer

Morgan Carpenter speaks at Arcus forum: “invisible no more”

Morgan Carpenter has been invited to speak on a panel on the international intersex human rights movement, presented at the conference Creating Change in Chicago, USA. Morgan spoke alongside Natasha Jímenez (Costa Rica), Julius Kaggwa (Uganda), Hiker Chiu (Taiwan), Silvan Agius (Malta) and Kimberly Zieselmen (US). Chicago, Illinois, USA. 22 January 2016. Invisible No More,…
Read more →

Morgan Carpenter (OII Australia), Julius Kaggwa (SIPD, Uganda), Hiker Chiu (Oii-Chinese, Taiwan), Kimberly Zieselman (AIC, US) and Dan Ghattas (OII Europe, Germany)

UN side event on intersex and human rights

On Friday, a side event was held at the UN Human Rights Council with intersex human rights defenders from five continents. Morgan Carpenter (OII Australia) moderated a panel featuring Julius Kaggwa (SIPD, Uganda), Hiker Chiu (Oii-Chinese, Taiwan), Kimberly Zieselman (AIC, US) and Dan Ghattas (OII Europe, Germany). The event was very kindly supported by ILGA and COC Netherlands.

intersex participants at the expert meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

UN High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein opens intersex expert meeting

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein opened an expert meeting on intersex: “All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights. Those foundational, bedrock principles of universality and equality mean that all of us, without exception, and regardless of our sex characteristics, are equally entitled to the protections of international human rights law.”

The symbol of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in purple

UN Free & Equal campaign publishes intersex fact sheet

Overnight, the UN OHCHR released a long-awaited intersex fact sheet, as part of the Free&Equal campaign. Intersex people are born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. Being intersex is much more common than most people think – according to experts there are as many intersex people…
Read more →

detail from cover image

Georgiann Davis, “Contesting Intersex”

Georgiann Davis’s first book, “Contesting Intersex, The Dubious Diagnosis” is hotly awaited, and the first chapter has just become available online, from the publisher. Here are a couple of quotes (references omitted): I show how contemporary U.S. medical experts on intersex, like much of society, tend to hold narrow, essentialist understandings of sex, gender, and…
Read more →

Inaugural Bob Hepple Award winners

Congratulations to Mauro Cabral

The visibility of the intersex movement is hampered by our worldwide lack of resourcing. It’s also notable that intersex and LGBT movements can often diverge: while most intersex people know a lot about issues affecting same sex attracted and transgender people, this is frequently not reciprocal. There are few intersex voices in LGBTI spaces, our…
Read more →

Resilient Individuals

Human Rights Commissioner: Bodily autonomy is basic human right

The Australian Human Rights Commissioner launched the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Rights report today, “Resilient Individuals”. It notes continuing forced surgical interventions on intersex people, and calls for implementation of the Senate committee report, Involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people in Australia.