The International Intersex Forum had its second gathering in Stockholm, Sweden December 2012. As with the first Forum in 2011, intersex activists from all continents attended. The previous Forum’s 3 principles were expanded to 7 and read as follows:
- “To put an end to mutilating and “normalising” practices such as genital surgeries, psychological and other medical treatments, including infanticide and selective abortion (on the grounds of intersex).
- To ensure that the personal, free, prior, and fully informed consent of the intersex individual is a compulsory requirement in all medical practices and protocols.
- Creating and facilitating supportive, safe and celebratory environments for intersex people, their families and their surroundings.
- In view of ensuring the bodily integrity and health of the intersex child, psycho-social support and non-pathologising peer support be provided to parents and/or care providers and the child’s immediate family instead of surgical or other medical treatment unless such interventions are life-saving.
- The provision of all human rights and citizenship rights to intersex people.
- The provision of access to one’s own medical records and any documentation, and the affirmation of the intersex person’s right to truth.
- The acknowledgement and redress of the suffering and injustice caused in the past.”
Another outcome of the Forum was the open letter that was drafted by Hilda Viloria, the Global Chair of Organisational Intersex International, and undersigned by the forum’s attending activists, which included African signatories including Sally Gross and Nthabiseng Mokoena. The open letter was then presented to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Her Excellency, Navanethem Pillay.
Photo credit: Del LaGrace Volcano