• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

OII Europe

Organisation Intersex International Europe

  • About OII Europe
  • Board & Staff
  • Job Opportunities
  • Membership application
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
OII Europe logo
  • Home
  • News
  • Demands
    • Malta Declaration
    • Statement of Riga
    • Vienna Statement
  • Voices
    • Human Rights
    • Calls for Action
    • Intersex People
      • Our Campaign #MyIntersexStory – personal accounts by intersex people living in Europe
  • Resources
    • Covid-19
    • Submissions
    • OlI Europe Publications
    • Issues – a short list
    • Infographics
    • Legal Toolkit
    • Parents’ Toolkit
    • Toolkit For Allies
    • OII Europe Flyer
    • Videos
    • Press Releases
    • Annual Reports
  • MAP

Intervention at the “Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender persons in Europe”, Ministerial Conference Center (CCM), Paris

March 27, 2013 by Editorial

Intervention at the

“Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender persons in Europe”

Paris, March 26th, 2013
in Ministerial Conference Center (CCM)

Dan Christian Ghattas, OII Europe (Organisation Intersex International – Europe).

We consider the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to be a very important soft law mechanism. However, it doesn’t address intersex people and the discrimination they are facing all over Europe, which highlights the marginalization Intersex people are subjected to in all European countries.

The number of intersex people is significant and the discrimination and the breach of Human Rights intersex people face is in many respects very much linked and similar to the discrimination of trans* people, with the difference that intersex people are even more invisibalized, marginalized and left to suffer in silence. I would like to point out just five aspects:

  1. Suffering from the binary sex model: Intersex people’s bodies can’t be read within the binary sex model because they exist outside of it due to their physical features; therefore Intersex people are being diagnosed as having DSD – a disorder of sexual development.
  2.  Violation of the right of self-determination: The medical establishment and societies, which are very eager to “protect” trans* people from their self-determined decisions, do subject intersex infants, children, teenager and adults to ‘normalizing’ surgical and/or hormonal treatment which aim to alter reproductive organs and genitalia towards a more female or male appearance. In the vast majority of cases those treatments are performed without the personal, free, prior, and fully informed consent of the intersex individual. Furthermore Intersex is a reason for selective abortion in Europe. NGOs also report an increasing tendency to subject the child-giving person to hormonal treatment during pregnancy, if examinations indicate the possibility of a an intersex child being born, – without any long-term studies on how this affects the pregnant person. In some regions of the world intersex is a reason for infanticide.
  3. Lack of health care: In many European Countries intersex people face huge problems when they need access to medical treatment which is restricted to either so-called “male” or “female” bodies. After-care after medical interventions is often not guaranteed for intersex people.
  4. Suffering from discrimination and violence: Intersex people face discrimination and violation of their fundamental human right of self-determination on the grounds of their bodies and sex. They may also face violence and discrimination due to gender non-conforming behaviour.
  5. Suffering invisibility and lack of data: The existence of intersex people and being an intersex person is a taboo in most European countries and besides the facts gathered by self-help groups and NGOs there is almost no sociological data available on the life situation of intersex people. Due to this invisibility and lack of knowledge intersex people face huge problems when they start organizing themselves though the number of activists and NGOs is increasing constantly.

I would like to know whether and how you plan to address those issues and if you plan to include recommendations of Intersex NGOs in your further work, such as those on which the delegates of 33 NGOs coming from every region of the world agreed on at the 2nd International Intersex Forum last December in Stockholm.
The demands were:

  1. To put an end to mutilating and ‘normalising’ practices such as genital surgeries, psychological and other medical treatments, including infanticide and selective abortion (on the grounds of intersex).
  2. To ensure that the personal, free, prior, and fully informed consent of the intersex individual as a compulsory requirement in all medical practices and protocols.
  3. Creating and facilitating supportive, safe and celebratory environments for intersex people, their families and surroundings.
  4.  In view of ensuring the bodily integrity and health of the intersex child, psycho-social support and non-pathologising peer support should be provided to parents and/or care providers and the child`s immediate family instead of surgical or other medical treatment unless such interventions are live-saving.
  5. The provision of all human rights and citizenship rights to intersex people.
  6. The provision of access to one`s own medical records and any documentation, and the affirmation of the intersex person`s right to truth.
  7. The acknowledgement and redress of the suffering and injustice caused in the past.

 

Download the PDF

Filed Under: Calls for Action

Primary Sidebar

We in social media

  • Visit our facebook page
  • Visit our twitter page
  • Visit our vimeo page
  • Visit our instagram page
  • Visit our youtube page

Intervisibility in Europe!

intervisibility website header

Please visit our multilingual community website with growing content in over 25 languages!

#IntersexLives Campaign 2020

What do intersex people dream of? What are their joys? What do intersex people hope for in their personal lives, what are their worries and fears?

Illustration of Record player in yellow and purple

Please visit our campaign website to learn more about intersex lives! intersexlives.oiieurope.org

TOOLKITS

Protecting intersex people in Europe: A toolkit for law and policy makers
Parents Toolkit Toolkit For Allies
Check out our Toolkits

What is Intersex?

IGLYO has teamed up with OII Europe to answer some common questions about being intersex.

OII Europe @ Twitter

Tweets by @OIIEurope

OII around the world

OII International
OII Friends & Members group
2016_1_Intersex_Day Intersex Day

Footer

OII EUROPE

ORGANISATION INTERSEX INTERNATIONAL EUROPE e.V.
is a registered charitable non-for-profit-organisation
Court of Registration: Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany
Registry Number: VR 34983 B

ADDRESS:
Heidelberger Str. 63/64
12435 Berlin
Germany

  • Data Protection (Privacy Policy) / Datenschutzerklärung
  • Impressum / Imprint

WE THANK OUR FUNDERS!

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice

Sigrid Rausing Trust Logo

Dreilinden Logo MINISTRY FOR JUSTICE, EQUALITY AND GOVERNANCE Malta Logo

And we are grateful for the support by our anonymous donors

Project RISE!

European Union

The project „RISE! Fighting discrimination and increasing visibility of intersex people through capacity and knowledge building" was funded by the European Union's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020).
The content of this project represents the views of the authors only and is their sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.

Cooperation Partners

Heinrich Boell Foundation

Unless otherwise specified the content of this website may be used by the following Creative Commons licence: Creative Commons Lizenzvertrag

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.