Theme: Building Our Future
Held on 25th-27th of May, 2023
Local Host: Collectif Intersexe Activiste – OII France
In 2023, four years and one pandemic later, we could finally hold the OII Europe Community Event & Public Conference in person again! This time, our local host was the wonderful Collectif Intersexe Activiste – OII France, who worked with us to ensure that this event would be a success!
The OII Europe Community Event & Public Conference was held from the 25th to the 27th of May, 2023 in Paris, France. Over 115 intersex people, families, allies & activists came together in Paris for the event, under the slogan “Building our future”. The participants came from 25 countries.
The sessions of the event covered a wide variety of topics, among others (3 tracks, 32 sessions in total):
● post pandemic intersex activism,
● legislative protection of intersex rights and IGM bans
● intersectional experiences of intersex experiences with additional backgrounds, like being racialized, assigned male at birth, trans
● aspects of raising awareness, including through comings out, media and artivism
● working with other movements, working in different regions
Some of the event sessions were held in hybrid format, allowing community members who could not attend in person, to join in and participate online.
OII Europe and OII France publications were available throughout the event in the Community space room. Participants were also encouraged to add their own publications and merch to the resources table.
COVID-19 safety measures included the quick tests, masks and sanitizers which were made available to all participants.
May 26th was the day of the OII Europe Public Conference.
The program included panels with intersex experts, French and international politicians and policy makers, as well as researchers.
Both the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, as well as the European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, delivered video messages to the participants.
We express our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the Collectif Intersexe Activiste – OII France and all their wonderful volunteers, the Welcome Team, the Awareness Team, the AwA_stern team, all our interpreters, the BLA Collective, the hotel staff and all of our participants!
