According to the first edition of the Intersex Legal Mapping Report published by ILGA World on December 12, the vast majority of UN Member States have not introduced any sufficient legal attempt to protect intersex people’s right to bodily integrity and autonomy.

Intersex people, who are born with variations of sex characteristics more diverse than stereotypical female and male bodies, make up around 1.7% of the global population. All over the world, intersex children and adults are often subject to harmful practices (including unnecessary medical procedures) because their bodies are seen as different.

In Ireland, there is no legislation that prohibits medical intervention on intersex children before they are able to consent to it and no effective monitoring mechanism is in place to have a clear picture of the problem.

This is also true of the large majority of countries in the world, as the Intersex Legal Mapping Report shows. Featuring an overview of how each of the 193 UN Member States fares regarding the human rights situation of intersex people, the study shows that only 34 countries have introduced legal developments to address the issue.

Of these, only six member states have laws prohibiting unnecessary medical interventions on intersex minors. These countries are Germany, Greece, Iceland, Malta, Portugal and Spain.

94% of UN Member States haven’t introduced any sufficient legislation to protect intersex people’s right to bodily integrity and autonomy. Moreover, only 7 countries – including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and Serbia – currently have legislation in place to explicitly protect intersex people from discrimination on the grounds of sex characteristics.

Chair of ILGA World’s Intersex Committee Crystal Hendricks commented on the new report, saying: “This striking dearth of legal protection is still a reality despite the unanimous, systematic, and urgent calls of intersex civil society and international human rights bodies. And yet, current positive trends give us reasons for hope.”

“International human rights law is also playing its part,” said Ilia Savelev, co-author of the Intersex Legal Mapping Report. “Since 2009, intergovernmental organisations’ responses have evolved from indecisive suggestions to urgent and confident calls to legally prohibit and ensure accountability for non-consensual medical interventions on intersex minors.”

Civil society organisations have been instrumental in advancing the human rights of intersex people, also calling for a UN resolution on the topic, which would raise awareness worldwide.

“Activists have long decried violations to intersex persons’ right to bodily integrity, autonomy, and self-determination,” said ILGA World co-Secretaries General Luz Elena Aranda and Tuisina Ymania Brown. “But we know that these issues are not faced by intersex people alone: to different extents, these issues are also extremely relevant when it comes to gender equality and sexuality, but also disability, sexual and reproductive health and rights, or sex work.”

They concluded, “At a time when the policing of bodies has become a staple in the wider anti-rights agenda, cross-movement solidarity has never been more important. We hope that tools like the Intersex Legal Mapping Report will catalyse continued progress and change – not just for the intersex community, but for all of us.”

To learn more about the Intersex Legal Mapping Report, click here.