Intersex Issues – a short list

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United Nations Treaty Body recommendations – Intersex-specific

Last update: 18.09.2024

You can find a more comprehensive resource list including links to Human Rights documents, UN concluding observations and regional and national policy papers on intersex human rights in another document that is being updated periodically on the following page:

More information on how to help bringing intersex issues forward can be found in the 2016 OII Europe/ILGA Europe Toolkit Standing up for the human rights of intersex people – how can you help?

toolkit standing up for the human rights of intersex people - how can you help
Allies Toolkit

WHO/ICD Revision

GATE Submission to WHO on Intersex Issues in the process of ICD reform (2017) Intersex Issues in the International Classification of Diseases: a revision. (2014)


Intersex and Disability

OII Europe (2015): Statement of OII Europe on Intersex, Disability and the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.


Employment

Morgan Carpenter, Dawn Hough (2014): Employers’ Guide to Intersex Inclusion. Ed. by OII Australia and Pride in Diversity

Please also check our topic page on Employment here:


Legislation and policy

Maltese bill on gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (2015)

Maltese educational policy on how to accommodate the needs of trans, intersex and gender-variant students (2015)

Please also check our Legal Toolkit “Protecting Intersex People in Europe: A toolkit for law and policy makers”:


Reports on the human rights situation of intersex people

Human rights and intersex people. Issue Paper published by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights (2015)

EU Fundamental Rights Agency (2015): The fundamental rights situation of intersex people

United Nations (2015): Human Rights of Intersex Persons (Side event at the 30th Session of the Human Rights Council in September 2015)

24. GMFK Konferenz (2014): Top 8.1: Rechte intersexueller Menschen wahren und Diskriminierung beenden – insbesondere Schutz der körperlichen Unversehrtheit

English translation of the most important part

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights (2014): Human Rights Comment: A boy or a girl or a person – intersex people lack recognition in Europe

United Nations (2014): Intersex People and Human Rights: Violations, Voices and Visions. (Side event at the UN prior to the 25th Session of the Human Rights Council in March 2014)

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (2013): Children’s right to physical integrity

United Nations General Assembly (2013): Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez

Dan Christian Ghattas (2013): Human Rights between the Sexes. A preliminary study on the life situations of inter* individuals. Ed. by the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation. Berlin

Swiss National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics: On the management of differences of sex development Opinion No. 20/2012. Ethical issues relating to “intersexuality“

San Francisco Human Rights Commission (2005): A human rights investigation into the medical “normalization” of intersex people (2005)


Movies, Articles and Books (selected)

Janik Bastien-Charlebois: “On our own terms and in our own words”: The value of first-person accounts of intersex experience. 2019, in: “#MyIntersexStory – Personal accounts by intersex people living in Europe” OII Europe Intersex Awareness Weeks Campaign & Publication

My Intersex Story (This video was created during OII Europe’s Second Intersex Community Event and Conference in Copenhagen in February 2018)

Entre Deux Sexes (Documentary by Régine Abadia, France 2017, with intersex activists and the participants of the international intersexe residence of Douarnenez) Teaser

Mauro Cabral (2015): The marks on our bodies (Article published for Intersex Awareness Day, 26th of October

Inter – Erfahrungen intergeschlechtlicher Menschen in der Welt der zwei Geschlechter (2013, ed. by Barth, Ghattas, Böttger, Schneider), a collection of essays and conversations on the experience of intersex individuals from five continents.

Intersexion (Documentary featuring various intersex people’s life histories, New Zealand, 2012) Trailer

Orchids, My Intersex Adventure (Autobiographical documentary about an intersex filmmaker, Australia, 2010) Trailer

Interdicciones – Escrituras de la Intersexualidad en Castellano (2009, ed. by M. Cabral), a collection of essays and conversations on the experience of intersex people in Latin America and Spain.

El último verano de la Boyita (Feature film about an intersex adolescent and their friend, Julia Solomonoff, Argentina, 2009) Trailer

XXY (Feature film about an intersex adolescent, Argentina, Spain, France, 2007) Trailer

Octopusalarm (OT: Tintenfischalarm, documentary about an intersex person, Austria, 2006, avail. with english subtitles) Trailer

Hermaphrodites Speak! (Documentary from the first Intersex Retreat 1995, United States 1996. Watch here.

YOUth&I is an intersex youth anthology that shares the stories and experiences of young intersex people. Website: https://youthandi.org/