Intersex Genital Mutilations Human Rights Violations of Children with Variations of Sex Anatomy
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Intersex Genital Mutilations Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy NGO Report (for Session) to the 5th and 6th Report of Argentina on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Compiled by: Justicia Intersex (Intersex Human Rights NGO) Mauro Cabral Grinspan justiciaintersex_at_gmail.com http://justiciaintersex.blogspot.com/ Brújula Intersexual (International Intersex Human Rights NGO) Laura Inter brujulaintersexual_at_gmail.com https://brujulaintersexual.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Brujulaintersex/ Twitter: @brujulaintersex Brújula Intersexual Argentina (Intersex Human Rights NGO) Gaby González Ch Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brujulaintersexargentina/ StopIGM.org / Zwischengeschlecht.org (International Intersex Human Rights NGO) Markus Bauer Daniela Truffer Zwischengeschlecht.org P.O.Box 2122 CH-8031 Zurich info_at_zwischengeschlecht.org http://Zwischengeschlecht.org/ http://StopIGM.org/ April 2018 This NGO Report online: http://intersex.shadowreport.org/public/2018-CRC-Argentina-Intersex-Justicia-Brujula-StopIGM_v2.pdf 2 Executive Summary All typical forms of IGM practices are still practised in Argentina today, facilitated and paid for by the State party via the Universal Health Care System under the oversight of the Argentinian Ministry of Health. Parents and children are misinformed, kept in the dark, sworn to secrecy, kept isolated and denied appropriate support. Argentina is thus in breach of its obligations under CRC to (a) take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent harmful practices on intersex children causing severe mental and physical pain and suffering of the persons concerned, and (b) ensure access to redress and justice, including fair and adequate compensation and as full as possible rehabilitation for victims, as stipulated in CRC art. 24 para. 3 in conjunction with the CRC/CEDAW Joint general comment No. 18/31 “on harmful practices”. This Committee has consistently recognised IGM practices to constitute a harmful practice under the Convention in Concluding Observations. Also CAT, CEDAW, CRPD, the HRCttee, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Council of Europe (COE) and others have consistently recognised IGM as a breach of international law and have called for legislation to (a) end the practice, (b) ensure redress and compensation, and (c) to provide access to free counselling. Intersex people are born with Variations of Sex Anatomy, including atypical genitals, atypical sex hormone producing organs, atypical response to sex hormones, atypical genetic make-up, atypical secondary sex markers. While intersex people may face several problems, in the “developed world” the most pressing are the ongoing Intersex Genital Mutilations, which present a distinct and unique issue constituting significant human rights violations. IGM practices include non-consensual, medically unnecessary, irreversible, cosmetic genital surgeries, and/or other harmful medical procedures based on prejudice that would not be considered for “normal” children, without evidence of benefit for the children concerned. Typical forms of IGM include “masculinising” and “feminising”, “corrective” genital surgery, sterilising procedures, imposition of hormones, forced genital exams, vaginal dilations, medical display, human experimentation and denial of needed health care. IGM Practices cause known lifelong severe physical and mental pain and suffering, including loss or impairment of sexual sensation, painful scarring, painful intercourse, incontinence, urethral strictures, impairment or loss of reproductive capabilities, lifelong dependency of artificial hormones, significantly elevated rates of self-harming behaviour and suicidal tendencies, lifelong mental suffering and trauma, increased sexual anxieties, less sexual activity, dissatisfaction with functional and aesthetic results. For 25 years, intersex people have publicly denounced IGM as harmful and traumatising, as a form of genital mutilation and child sexual abuse, as torture or ill-treatment, and called for legislation to prevent it and to ensure remedies. This Thematic NGO Report has been compiled by the intersex NGOs Justicia Intersex, Brújula Intersexual, Brújula Intersexual Argentina and StopIGM.org. It contains Suggested Recommendations (p. 19) and an Appendix with 6 Case Studies. 3 NGO Report (for Session) to the 5th and 6th Report of Argentina on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Table of Contents IGM Practices in Argentina (p. 10-19) Executive Summary ........................................................................................ 3 Introduction ................................................................................................... 5 1. Intersex, IGM Practices and Human Rights in Argentina ........................................................... 5 2. About the Rapporteurs................................................................................................................. 5 3. Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 6 A. Background: Intersex, IGM and Harmful Misrepresentations .................... 7 1. IGM Practices: Involuntary, unnecessary medical interventions ................................................ 7 2. Intersex is NOT THE SAME as LGBT or SOGI ........................................................................ 8 3. Misrepresenting Genital Mutilation as “Health Care” ................................................................ 9 B. IGM in Argentina: State-sponsored and pervasive, Gov fails to act ........... 10 1. Overview: Lack of Protection for Intersex Persons, IGM state-sponsored ....................... 10 2. IGM practices in Argentina: Pervasive and unchallenged (art. 24(3), GC 18) ................. 12 a) IGM 3 – Sterilising Procedures: Castration / “Gonadectomy” / Hysterectomy / Removal of “Discordant Reproductive Structures” / (Secondary) Sterilisation and Arbitrary Imposition of Hormones .................................................................................. 12 b) IGM 2 – “Feminising Procedures”: Clitoris Amputation/“Reduction”, “Vaginoplasty”, “Labioplasty”, Dilation ........................................................................................................... 12 c) IGM 1 – “Masculinising Surgery”: Hypospadias “Repair” .................................................... 14 d) IGM 4 – Other Unnecessary and Harmful Medical Procedures ............................................ 15 3. State Actors Advocating and Financing IGM Practices (art. 24(3), GC 18) ..................... 16 4. IGM Doctors Dismissing or Misrepresenting Survivor’s Human Rights Claims ............. 16 5. IGM Doctors Consciously Dismissing Law and Ethical Guidance ..................................... 16 6. Obstacles to Redress, Fair and Adequate Compensation, and Rehabilitation .................. 18 C. Suggested Recommendations ............................................................ 19 D. Annexe “Case Studies” ............................................................................ 20 Case Study No. 1 ............................................................................................................................ 20 Case Study No. 2 ............................................................................................................................ 22 Case Study No. 3 ............................................................................................................................ 23 Case Study No. 4 ............................................................................................................................ 25 Case Study No. 5 ............................................................................................................................ 26 Case Study No. 6 ............................................................................................................................ 26 4 Introduction 1. Intersex, IGM Practices and Human Rights in Argentina Argentina will be considered for its combined 5th and 6th periodic review by CRC. Unfortunately, so far intersex children were not mentioned, neither in the State Report, nor in the List of Issues (LOI). Therefore we would like to again urge the Committee to raise intersex and IGM during the forthcoming Session. This NGO Report demonstrates how doctors in Argentinian public university clinics are regularly performing IGM practices, which have been described by survivors as genital mutilation and torture. IGM practices are known to cause severe, lifelong physical and psychological pain and suffering, and have been repeatedly recognised by CRC and other UN treaty bodies as constituting a harmful practice as well as torture or ill-treatment. Despite ongoing public criticism of the practice in Argentina by IGM survivors and legal experts, to this day the State party not only fails to take effective legislative, administrative or other action to prevent the practice, but in fact directly finances it via the Argentinian Universal Health Care System under the oversight of the Argentinian Ministry of Health, and via funding the public hospitals that practice IGM, including via the national research agency