The Special Rapporteur Tlaleng Mofokeng presented her final report Violence and its impact on the right to health to the Fiftieth session of the Human Rights Council (13 June–8 July 2022), in which she also reiterated the international demand for ending intersex genital mutilation (IGM) and called for a non-binary approach to gender and gender-based violence under the right to health.
See some intersex-related highlights below.
“18. The obligation to respect requires that States refrain from directly or indirectly interfering with the right to health, such as refraining from applying coercive medical treatments (such as forced sterilization, or involuntary surgery on intersex persons) […]”
“59. While intersex children, and later as adults, may face multiple problems, the most pressing for intersex children is the ongoing practice of intersex genital mutilation, which constitutes a significant human rights violation and must stop.”
“70. […] Structural violence with deep roots in patriarchal, hegemonic, and colonial definitions of society and social order is deeply entwined with sexual and gender-based violence and the denial of survivors’ access to health care and medical services. It includes denial of abortion, preventable maternal morbidity, the criminalization of sex work, State-sanctioned sterilization and State-sanctioned intersex genital mutilation. Such instances of structural violence are seen across both the global North and global South.”
Conclusions and recommendations
“86. The Special Rapporteur underlines the importance of adopting a non-binary approach to gender and gender-based violence under the right to health.”
“88. To achieve a comprehensive health response to violence, it is necessary to adopt an inclusive and non-binary approach to gender and gender-based violence, and must ensure that all laws, policies, programmes and services addressing gender-based violence are inclusive of all persons, with or without disabilities, children and adults, and should include cisgender, transgender, non-binary, queer and intersex people.”
United Nations – General Assembly – Human Rights Council, Violence and its impact on the right to health, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, A/HRC/50/28, 2022
Please also see our submission to the initial questionaire to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (February 22, 2022):
