2016 — Uchapishaji wa ‘Kumkomesha Vitendo Hujuma kwa Mizamia na Mashoga Barani Afrika’

In 2016, South Africa’s Iranti, as well as the Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE), Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN), Stop Trans Pathologization 2012 (STP) team, and Transgender Europe (TGEU), hosted a workshop to share knowledge and learning and to form advocacy strategies against the pathologisation of trans and intersex people in Africa based on the World Health Organization (WHO)’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The advocacy booklet, Ending Pathological Practices Against Trans and Intersex Bodies in Africa, was published as a result of the workshop.

From the introduction of the booklet, the goal of the publication

“is to create a basic, accessible and user-friendly tool for understanding the links between access to gender affirming health-care, human rights, depathologisation of trans and gender diverse identities, and the current review process of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The ICD is an international classification that has been developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). It contains a complex list of diseases, disorders, injuries, and factors influencing contact with healthcare services. Some of the diagnoses in the ICD directly affect trans, gender diverse, and intersex communities.

We hope that this publication serves as an accessible guide to understanding the importance of depathologising trans health-care:

• Is used across communities; by clinicians, by activists, by trans and gender diverse persons, intersex persons, scholars, NGOs, etc.
• Ignites a growing interest in the campaign to depathologise gender affirming healthcare, getting
• More people and organisations from the region involved.
• Challenges the power dynamics that exist in the access to gender affirming healthcare.
• Highlights the intersection between depathologisation and the decolonisation of our identities.”