For an introduction to these issues, see our page on bodily integrity
This speech was given in a panel presentation at the National LGBTI Health Alliance conference, Health in Difference, in Sydney, 12 April 2018. Good evening everyone, my name is Steph. My story is a story not often heard – it’s a story of just being a really boring everyday intersex person. Hey. Being intersex just…
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This year’s Health in Difference conference, organised by the National LGBTI Health Alliance, contained a set of presentations and workshops on intersex issues, by intersex people. Introductory plenary session Bonnie Hart (AISSGA) gave an insight into intersex lived experience in a 10 minute plenary speech at the start of the conference. Plenary panel presentation: “Working…
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IHRA has made a formal submission to the Department of Justice and Attorney General of the Queensland Government on proposed amendments to legislation on birth certificates. The submission is grounded in the Darlington Statement of March 2017, and the Yogyakarta Principles plus 10.
An important and long-awaited supplement to the Yogyakarta Principles is published today. The Principles apply international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation, gender identity, and now also gender expression and sex characteristics.
Steph Lum gave this speech to the Inclusive Canberra think tank, held by the ACT LGBTIQ Ministerial Advisory Council, on 14 November 2017. Tonight I am speaking as a young person with an intersex variation. I’m really encouraged that we have such a positive environment here in the ACT and there’s a lot of energy…
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The UN Human Rights Committee has made a powerful call to recognise the human rights of intersex people, including through ending irreversible medical treatment that is not absolutely medically necessary, and that takes place before a child can comprehend and provide informed consent.
On 7 November, SBS Insight screened a program on the medicalisation of intersex people. Several members and directors of OII Australia participated, in addition to parents and clinicians. The full episode is available to view online.
Clinicians are increasingly raising their voices in opposition to forced and coercive interventions, including Physicians for Human Rights and the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association, but more action is needed – particularly in Australia.
OII Australia has submitted a shadow report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, endorsed by the Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia, Disabled People’s Organisations of Australia, National LGBTI Health Alliance, and People with Disability Australia. It provides evidence of continuing harmful practices in Australian hospitals, with support from Australian governments and the Family Court, and makes a number of recommendations, based upon the 2017 Darlington Statement.
In mid 2016, OII Australia made a submission to the United Nations Committee against Torture documenting human rights violations against intersex people in Australia. Since around that date, the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria has systematically removed evidence of human rights violations, including psychosocial justifications for surgeries such as “marriage” prospects, and…
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The Family Court of Australia has recently published a new case involving an intersex child, this time where the parents sought consent for their child, an adolescent, to obtain treatment for “gender dysphoria”. Unlike in the recent Family Court case Re Carla (Medical procedure) [2016] Fam CA 7, the case was not supported by a…
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We announce publication of a joint consensus statement, the “Darlington Statement”, by Australian and Aotearoa/New Zealand intersex organisations and independent advocates, in March 2017. It sets out common priorities and calls to action by the intersex human rights movement in our countries.