…ssociated with stigma and familial or social distress, must be viewed in a human rights context. The framework for medical intervention should ensure that we have the same human rights as other members of the community. 3.4. We believe that cosmetic genital surgeries, and the sterilisation of children who are assigned a sex that does not match to their gonads, must end. These surgeries have been taking place without adequate scrutiny or regard for…
…bodily integrity and bodily autonomy (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 2019; Senate of Australia Community Affairs References Committee 2013). This policy briefing considers whether or not guidelines are enough to ensure medical interventions on infants, children and adolescents with intersex variations conform to human rights norms, and eliminate harmful so-called ‘normalising’ interventions. Reviewing the evidence on clinical pr…
…a It is helpful to do some background research before approaching Intersex Human Rights Australia. There is a large volume of research on intersex people, including more than 60 years worth of medical studies, and some smaller quantity of more recent LGBTQ/LGBTIQ research. We need researchers to have familiarised themselves with the basic literature on intersex. We strongly advise that researchers contact us early in the design process for any stu…
…[2] Those interventions have been identified by intersex organizations and human rights institutions as amounting to torture and ill treatment in medical settings.[3] Medical science should not be used to “construct individual identity” on the basis of outdated gender stereotypes, this is a source of great harm: it should be used where necessary to affirm individuals’ personal decisions. Medical science does not exist outside of society, and does…
…of these reforms, and we have been joined by including other community and human rights organisations like Intersex Peer Support Australia, A Gender Agenda and Equality Australia. The process has also involved clinicians, including mental health practitioners who are supportive of reform, and others who are wedded to the idea that children’s bodies need to change to suit social norms. Watch the introductory statement by Chief Minister Andrew Barr…
…on intersex health and human rights 1. National legislation to protect the human rights of people with innate variations of sex characteristics in medical settings 1a. In the alternative, nationally consistent legislation to protect the human rights of people with innate variations of sex characteristics in medical settings 2. National human rights-affirming standards of care for medical treatment involving people with innate variations of sex cha…
…s after briefing the UN Human Rights Commission, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein opened a first expert meeting on intersex in Geneva on Wednesday morning, 16 September 2015. Intersex experts included OII Australia’s Morgan Carpenter, along with Daniela Truffer (Zwischengeschlecht, Switzerland), Julius Kaggwa (SIPD, Uganda), Mauro Cabral (Justicia Intersex/GATE, Argentina), Hiker Chiu (Oii-Chinese, Taiwan), Kimberly Zi…
…down with members of our intersex community, representatives from Intersex Human Rights Australia, the AIS Support Group Australia and A Gender Agenda, to listen to and reflect on their lived experience. Their visit to parliament was in recognition of Intersex Awareness Day Friday next week. Their stories were incredibly powerful. We heard stories from people born with variations in sex characteristics who experienced horrific and invasive non-ess…
…including in respect of the human rights of children. IHRA recognises the human rights implications of forced and coercive medical interventions on people with intersex variations undertaken for social, cultural or cosmetic reasons. In line with the Darlington Statement, we call for the criminalisation of deferrable irreversible interventions without personal consent, due to their human rights implications. In January 2022, we added a transcript…
…ience of intersex people in sport, as part of studies on LGBTI people (ACT Human Rights Commission and others, 2014) or transgender and intersex people (AHRC, 2015), their framing has failed to be relevant to the needs of intersex people, and low sample sizes mean that the data are not representative. Caster Semenya has been subject to brutal scrutiny of her appearance and her physical traits, described in Australian media as a “gender bender” (Si…
…IHRA are currently members of an expert reference group for an Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry (2018) on protecting the human rights of people born with variations in sex characteristics in the context of medical interventions. Without change, as described in the Darlington Statement (2017), the reforms exacerbate a situation where intersex bodies are “normalised” as either female or male while intersex identities are “othered” as neit…
….au The Australian Human Rights Commission report can be found at: https://humanrights.gov.au/intersex-report-2021 Note to journalists: Just as skin and hair colour vary along a spectrum, so do our sex characteristics. An intersex person is born with physical sex characteristics that are less common, varying from social or medical norms for male or female bodies. The word ‘intersex’ refers to these innate bodily variations of sex characteristics,…
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