Issue Areas: Intersex Human Rights

IntersexUK

IntersexUK is a volunteer-run organization led by two intersex women. It was founded in 2010 to prevent irreversible medical and surgical abuses being inflicted on intersex bodied children.

IntersexUK (iUK) was Co Founded by two intersex VSC women, Holly Greenberry and Dawn Vago, with advocate support  in 2010 (Holly and Dawn are parents also). iUK has grown over the last 12 years. The team now includes Jeanette (Uk’s most senior public intersex speaker and activist), and Joe (who was the UK’s youngest Intersex person to speak out publicly). All of the iUK team have a strong ethos and focus to also engage and work with independent intersectional intersex people and support creating spaces for intersex / VSC  inclusion and voices.

The key focus of iUK’s work is to deliver fact, testimony, demands and consultancy with a focus on legislation and policy by means of expert education. iUK have consulted and reported as lead stakeholders in cross party settings, and with various government departments, as well having worked in unity on numerous UN projects.  A fundamental goal of iUK is to support cross party understanding of intersex / VSC issues and to recognise and enact the need for bodily autonomy and bodily integrity for all intersex bodied people with a variation of sex characteristic (VSC). They focus heavily on unity, advocacy and stakeholder consultation delivering Intersex / VSC demands based on co authored International demands statements. iUK have also delivered numerous co authored reports to UN treaty bodies regarding the UK’s approach to ‘managing’ intersex / VSC people (especially children / minors). They deliver fundamentally important education across all levels, including working with academics, guest lecturing at universities and delivering expert key note speakers, forums, workshops and panels. Their work with the media is extensive. They administer some vital online support groups, as well as offer one to one peer support to intersex individuals as well as to parents and carers. They work with and are advocated by many professionals, parliamentarians, organisations: women’s, children’s, mens and LGBT+ organisations to list but a few.

This Body, Too

This Body, Too is a feature-length documentary written, directed by and starring Arisleyda Dilone, a young intersex woman living in the U.S. The film aims to capture Aris’s experience growing up intersex in a Dominican-American family. Aris focuses on the influences of outside forces (her partner, her friends, the medical field and, most importantly, her family) as she seeks to understand her identity as an intersex-woman and a Dominican-American. Her journey takes her back to the Dominican Republic, where there is a long history of medical research of intersex bodies. This Body, Too will tackle issues of sex identity, gender identity, surgical interventions and mainstream perceptions of feminine identity.

Funding enabled her to shoot an interview with her former doctor that operated on her body as a teen (this interview will form part of the feature film This Body, Too) and complete a short film, Mami y Yo y mi Gallito (16mins, 2015), which revolves around her first conversation with her mother about her body.

Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org

Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org is an international intersex human rights NGO based in Switzerland.

Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org is an international intersex human rights NGO based in Switzerland. It was co-founded in 2007 by Daniela Truffer, an intersex person and IGM survivor, and her partner, Markus Bauer.

The NGO confronts and exposes perpetrators and accessories of intersex genital mutilation (IGM), promotes human rights, and raises awareness of intersex and IGM practices.

StopIGM.org has authored and co-authored soon 20 international NGO reports, resulting in UN treaty bodies globally condemning IGM as a harmful practice, torture and other violations of international law. It supports intersex persons seeking redress and justice, has organised over 100 nonviolent protests in 7 European countries and was featured in over 200 media reports around the globe.

Brújula Intersexual

Laura Inter was influenced by its own history and their own experiences as an intersex person and saw the need to share information on intersex issues and improve living conditions of intersex people.

Foundation

Laura Inter, its founder, was born with an intersex body, lived difficult experiences during her life, particularly in hospitals. In addition, much of her life believed that in the world there were no other people like her, for a long time she looked for a safe place where she could share her fears, her experiences, a place that would give her the tools to begin to heal and continue. Go ahead, but no matter how hard he looked, he did not find that place in his country, or any other Spanish-speaking space. These kinds of places are never created alone, nor do they arise out of nowhere, like this, with patience, with love, with determination … little by little that place began to take shape, and on October 27, 2013 – a day after Intersex Visibility, founded Brújula Intersexual.

The initial objective was to make intersex experiences visible, for this it was central to disseminate information in Spanish about the right to autonomy and bodily integrity of intersex people. The most relevant activities, and that have been maintained since its foundation, are to generate a community of peers and offer emotional support to intersex people and their families.

Mission

 

Our mission is to denounce violations of the right to self-determination, integrity and bodily autonomy that affect intersex people. Our main objective is to transform medical practices and social representations of intersex bodies and to contribute to the critical reflection of sex and gender; In this way, we influence the profound transformation of gender relations by challenging the naturalization of bodies and sexual stereotypes. The group’s activities are of dissemination, information, visibility and transformation of the problems faced by intersex people. For this we carry out various activities that have an impact on different levels of social life: we produce popular articles and academic texts; didactic materials; we translate relevant information into Spanish; We advise strategic groups, state and federal institutions; we participate in the media: publications, interviews; we give workshops and talks; We collaborate in the preparation of documents that affect the transformation of public policies; We collaborate in the presentation of reports on the situation of intersex people before various international human rights organizations.

From the beginning, our mission involved generating community and providing emotional support, we work primarily with groups of intersex people in our country and in other Spanish-speaking countries, and the world.

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*** En Español*** 

Fundación

Laura Inter, su fundadora, nació con un cuerpo intersexual, vivió experiencias complicadas durante su vida, en particular en los hospitales. Además, gran parte de su vida creyó que en el mundo no había otras personas como ella, por mucho tiempo buscó un lugar seguro en el que pudiera compartir sus miedos, sus experiencias, un lugar que le brindara las herramientas para comenzar a sanar y seguir adelante, pero por más que buscó, no encontró ese lugar en su país, ni ningún otro espacio de habla hispana. Ese tipo de lugares nunca se crean solos, ni surgen de la nada, así, con paciencia, con amor, con determinación… poco a poco ese lugar comenzó a tomar forma, y el 27 de octubre de 2013 —un día después del Día de la Visibilidad Intersexual, fundó Brújula Intersexual.

El objetivo inicial fue visibilizar las experiencias intersexuales, para ello fue central difundir información en idioma español acerca del derecho a la autonomía e integridad corporal de las personas intersexuales. Las actividades más relevantes, y que se han mantenido desde su fundación, son generar una comunidad de pares y ofrecer apoyo emocional a personas intersexuales y sus familias.

Misión

Nuestra misión es denunciar las violaciones al derecho a la autodeterminación, integridad y autonomía corporal que afectan a las personas intersexuales. Nuestro principal objetivo es transformar las prácticas médicas y representaciones sociales de los cuerpos intersexuales y coadyuvar a la reflexión crítica del sexo y del género; de esta manera incidimos en la transformación profunda de las relaciones de género al interpelar la naturalización de los cuerpos y estereotipos sexuales. Las actividades del grupo son de difusión, información, visibilización y transformación de los problemas que enfrentan las personas intersexuales. Para ello realizamos actividades diversas que tienen incidencia en distintos planos de la vida social: producimos artículos de divulgación y textos académicos; materiales didácticos; traducimos al español información relevante; asesoramos a grupos estratégicos, instituciones estatales y federales; participamos en medios de comunicación: publicaciones, entrevistas; impartimos talleres y charlas; colaboramos en la elaboración de documentos que inciden en la transformación de las políticas públicas; colaboramos en la presentación de informes sobre la situación de las personas intersexuales ante diversos organismos internacionales de derechos humanos.

Desde un inicio nuestra misión implicó generar comunidad y brindarle apoyo emocional, trabajamos primordialmente con grupos de personas intersexuales en nuestro país y en otros países de habla hispana, y del mundo.

Egalite Intersex Ukraine

Intersex Ukraine was founded in 2013 by Julia, an intersex woman, to address social isolation and in Ukraine.

Intersex Ukraine was founded in 2013. They have since developed tools for awareness–raising such as a brochure in Ukrainian (the second expanded edition was recently published): “Who Are Intersexes And How To Be Full Members Of Society Without Losing Themselves” with a lot of social and legal information. Their awareness raising manifests itself as well in a first photo exhibitions about intersex people, and a first documentary on the same topic in the national Ukrainian TV. They also created a short public video about intersex rights, that was presented by two national TV stations and then performed as a social video in a cinema in Kiev, for a week, before each screening. They are also involved in international advocacy, participating or being represented in the CEDAW press conference as well as in the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights “Meeting with partners”. They have strong European connexions, participating in the European Intersex Community Event as well as the ILGA Europe Conference.

EMERGE

EMERGE is a project that creates social impact through visual artistry. EMERGE is the culmination of Sean Saifa Wall’s achievements to date that reflect his documentation of community and history through art. EMERGE is also the parent project for a series of socially motivated projects that will raise awareness of inequity and juxtapose that with resilience.  

The funded project, Letters to an Unborn Son (LUS), is a multi-media performance focusing on Saifa and his father, who was incarcerated for four years and died while in prison from AIDS-related complications. LUS draws from letters that he sent during that time to his wife and Saifa, who was assigned female at birth and later transitioned to male. LUS intends to educate people about the experiences of those born with intersex bodies and discuss intersectional issues related to institutional racism, incarceration, poverty, state violence against non-normative bodies, and addiction. Funding will enable EMERGE to develop and stage a performance in Atlanta, as well as start work on the video component of the project.

Check out our 2016 Intersex Awareness Day video, featuring Sean Saifa Wall:

Intersex Campaign for Equality

Founded originally as OII-USA in 2010 by intersex Latina activist Hida Viloria, ICE is a multi-gendered, multi-orientation, multi-racial NGO working for the human rights of intersex people, particularly the rights to bodily integrity, self-determination, legal recognition, and de-pathologization of intersex traits and non-binary identities in medicine and society.

Founded originally as OII-USA in 2010 by intersex Latina activist Hida Viloria, ICE is a multi-gendered, multi-orientation, multi-racial NGO working for the human rights of intersex people, particularly the rights to bodily integrity, self-determination, legal recognition, and de-pathologization of intersex traits and non-binary identities in medicine and society. ICE strives to create a world where all intersex people are viewed and treated equally by: providing peer support and rights-based information to intersex individuals; advocating for legal recognition and protection from discrimination; and providing information about the goals of the intersex advocacy community and the life experiences of intersex people from diverse communities to all those working with or allied to intersex people. In 2013, the group published the groundbreaking resource “Your Beautiful Child: Information for Parents,” a resource for parents of children born with variations of sex anatomy that uses equality-based, non-stigmatizing language. The resource is being used by health care professionals throughout the U.S. and has been adapted for distribution throughout Australia.

Intersex Ísland – félag intersex fólks á Íslandi

Intersex Ísland was founded June 2014 to tackle the utter lack of visibility of intersex people in Iceland.

Intersex Ísland was founded June 2014. The association is working closely with OII Europe, one of the OII Europe Co–Chair being from Intersex Ísland. They also have several OII Europe brochures translated in Icelandic. They work closely with Samtakanna 78, the national queer organization, and with Amnesty International in a campaign for intersex rights in Iceland. They do awareness raising through media interviews and public screenings, as well as marches.

Intersex Trust Aotearoa New Zealand (ITANZ)

ITANZ was formed in 1996. They are strongly involved in regional and global intersex networks, on activism and on research.

ITANZ was formed in 1996. They are strongly involved in regional and global intersex networks, on activism and on research. Locally, they are currently working with the Ministry of Health on health pathways for intersex children as well as on clinic reference groups for intersex/VSC people. They are also advocating on statistics and registration. They are part of a national network of rainbow organizations supporting youth, and they have developed a new family focused resource. They also participated in an intersex chapter in a human rights work national report.

InterACT

Founded in 2006, interACT is the first and only organization in the U.S. to undertake a coordinated strategy of legal advocacy for the rights of intersex children while raising awareness and developing intersex youth advocates.

Founded in 2006, interACT is the first and only organization in the U.S. to undertake a coordinated strategy of legal advocacy for the rights of intersex children while raising awareness and developing intersex youth advocates. It’s work is dividted into three main areas: Law and Policy, Youth and Media.

Intersex children have unique legal needs related to questions about informed parental consent for treatment, minors’ participation in decision-making, reproductive rights, medical malpractice and school harassment and accommodation, among other issues. interACT’s primary goal is to end the practice of unnecessary harmful medical treatment and genital surgeries on children born with intersex traits. interACT Law and Policy works to inform and educate both parents and doctors, change laws in the U.S., and influence global policies to protect the rights of intersex children.

interACT Youth fosters intersex youth leadership development to help raise public awareness. interACT Youth recently consulted with MTV to develop an honest and respectful portrayal of an intersex individual in the mainstream TV comedy, “Faking It” and Youth members frequently tell their stories to the media, at schools and conferences. The young advocates have published three brochures echoing their own voices: What We Wish Our Doctors Knew; What We Wish Our Parents Knew, and What We Wish Our Friends Knew.