Over the last while, Iranti has been making bold and important moves to further intersex rights on the African continent, and across the globe.
During September 2022, our Intersex Rights Officer, Crystal Hendricks, had the opportunity to meet with Permanent Missions in Geneva for Uruguay, Canada, Australia, Finland, and the Netherlands. During the meetings, she was able could provide them with country-specific context and recommendations on the South African UPR submission.
UPR Shadow report
The submission for South Africa UPR focused on 3 major topics.
Trans Rights: Pathologisation of The Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Act 49 of 2003 and barriers to gender marker and legal sex description changes
When attempting to change their legal sex description, trans and gender diverse people face legislative and administrative barriers, as well as discrimination. The Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Act 49 of 2003, as a legal framework, is associated with a number of human rights violations that limit trans and gender diverse people’s access to legal gender recognition; for example, the Act pathologizes trans and gender diverse identities by enforcing discriminatory medical requirements and puts it out of reach of the majority who do not have access to gender-affirming healthcare.
Intersex Rights: Bodily Integrity, Freedom and Security of the Person relating to Non-Consensual, Medically Unnecessary Treatments/Surgeries on Intersex Infants, Children and Adolescents
Children with intersex traits in South Africa have been and continue to be subjected to intersex genital mutilation (IGM) and other unnecessary medical interventions to change their sex traits without their consent, beginning in infancy and continuing throughout childhood. These children are frequently subjected to irreversible genital surgery, sex assignment, and sterilization, as well as medical display and photography of the genitals, as well as unethical medical experimentation. As a result of such experiences, intersex people suffer long-term physically and psychologically harmful consequences (including sterility, genital insensitivity, impaired sexual function, chronic pain, chronic bleeding, chronic infections, postsurgical depression, trauma, internal and external scarring and metabolic imbalances) and such practices constitute gross human rights violations
Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Women’s Rights: Sexual and Gender Based Violence
In research on violence against lesbian women in South Africa, “74.01% of participants said that they had been verbally harassed for their sexual orientation and gender identity, 47.70% had experienced physical violence in their lifetime, 42.29% had experienced sexual violence, 22.09% experienced sexual violence by an intimate partner and 28.24% experienced physical violence by an intimate partner. Of 58 bisexual women in South Africa surveyed on violence and health outcomes said the following: 56.14% said that they had been verbally harassed for their sexual orientation and gender identity, 57.89% had experienced physical violence in their lifetime, 61.40% had experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, 43.86% experienced sexual violence by an intimate partner and 33.93% experienced physical violence by an intimate partner”.
Based on the research and findings, the following recommendations were made:
- Repeal the Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act 49 of 2003 (Act 49) and develop new gender recognition legislation that is in line with the Yogyakarta Principles, international human rights principles and best practices, of using a gender self-determination and self-identification model. Establish strong avenues that prevent, investigate, and adequately punish all threats, attacks, discrimination and intimidation against trans and gender diverse people, including when such violence is committed by members of the police and government officials.
- Ban genital surgery on intersex children (intersex genital mutilation), except in instances of medical emergency, where legislation, policy and guideline clearly state the definition of medically emergency as only referring to physical health and not to perceived psychological or social factors.
- Implement key measures of the Domestic Violence Act; strengthen systematic and comprehensive collection of disaggregated data related to incidences of all forms of violence against women and LGBTIQ+ persons, including femicide and intimate partner violence, using this data to inform its policy responses and monitoring.
- Establish strong avenues that prevent, investigate, and adequately punish all threats, attacks, discrimination and intimidation against LGBTIQ+ people, including when such violence is committed by members of the police and government officials
Crystal Speaks at the UN Human Rights Council
In addition to her engagements on the UPR shadow report, Crystal had the opportunity to present a statement at the UN on behalf of ILGA, which was a panel discussion focused on the Negative Impact of Colonialism. This sitting constituted the 27th Meeting, 51st Regular Session of Human Rights Council.
The panel discussion can be watched here. To skip to Crystal’s statement, head to the timestamp 1:13:44.
We are incredibly proud of the good and important work Crystal has been doing as the Intersex Rights Officer at Iranti. Thank you being a leader in the activism space.
Global Statement on Intersex Rights
Iranti, together with intersex-led organisations worldwide, submitted a joint statement at the 51th Session of the Human Rights Council, which highlighted the dire situation intersex-born infant, children and people are facing.
“In most countries around the world, intersex infants and children are routinely subjected to unnecessary treatments, surgeries, and other interventions without their expressed personal free and informed consent. These harmful practices have the intention of forcibly modifying their appearance or physical development in order to align their bodies with stereotypical and societal expectations given to female and male bodies.”
We stressed the impact of these human rights violations and abuses. We also noted that at the 45th Human Rights Council session, 37 states had presented joint statement calling on states to protect the human rights of intersex persons, and then another 53 states submitted a similar statement at 48th HRC session.
“While the intersex civil society welcomes these collective calls to end violence and harmful practices against intersex people by several UN member states, infanticide, discrimination, stigmatization, violence, and many harmful practices particularly in medical settings, continue to occur around the world for infants and children born with variations of their sex characteristics.”
To this end, Iranti and cross-regional organisations submitted the joint statement at the 51th Session of the HRC, stating that,
“We, therefore, call upon this council as a matter of urgency for a global investigation of these serious human rights violations against intersex persons. We call as well upon states to ban unconsented, non-vital, medically unnecessary surgeries, forced hormonal treatments, and other invasive or irreversible non-vital medical interventions in infants and children as a criminal act; provide access to vital medical needs as a human right, and establish adequate, integral, psychosocial, peer-based, human rights affirming standards of care that ensures the protection of intersex’s people bodily and mental integrity in medical settings.”