A law to protect the human rights of intersex people
The initiative proposes that medical interventions that do not pose a risk to health or life should be consented to by the people whose bodies are involved.
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“It is essential to put an end to medical violence in Argentina, a country that also has a long tradition of upholding the right to truth. That is why it is important to pass a law that respects these two principles,” says activist and leader of the organization Intersex Justice , Mauro Cabral Grinspan, speaking about the bill that will be presented in the coming days to the National Congress to guarantee the comprehensive protection of the sex characteristics of all people.
[READ ALSO: What is intersex: concepts to debunk myths and prejudices]
The initiative proposes that medical interventions that do not pose a risk to health or life require the consent of the individuals whose bodies are involved. “There are interventions related to socially accepted notions of what constitutes a girl or a boy; these are normalizing or cosmetic procedures that are not consensual, and this is what this law seeks to prevent. These matters should not be left solely to the decision of the parents because there can be consequences for physical integrity or reproductive capacity. These are private matters that they should decide when they are able to do so. This does not preclude the child from undergoing the intervention in the future if they decide to do so,” Iñaki Regueiro De Giacomi, a member of ABOSEX (Lawyers for Sexual Rights), an organization that worked with Intersex Justice on drafting the text, told Presentes. He emphasized: “The law focuses on reversing the violation of the human rights of intersex children, which is the most urgent issue.”
It is not a pathology
“The project highlights hospital settings as environments where human rights violations occur. “Being born with an intersex body is not a pathology. These are bodies that deserve to be respected and not violated with normalizing interventions. This law restricts the power of parents over their children, and also the power of doctors,” says Mauro Cabral.
So-called “normalizing or corrective” interventions aim to approximate an ideal body, but when we talk about intersexuality, we're talking about bodily diversity, not gender identity or sexual orientation. What intersexuality challenges is that the concepts of male and female are cultural conventions. “As a society, we must not only refrain from normalizing this diversity, but embrace it,” says Regeuiro De Giacomi.
The right to the truth
The draft project also proposes the creation of a Truth Commission to issue an opinion on past actions from a human rights perspective.
“The reality is that some children are born with these conditions. It’s as common as being a redhead or left-handed. The issue is what we do with these children given the cultural pressures of a society that urgently wants to correct these bodies. They are assigned a gender, and there is a very high degree of error. Not only is there a violation of rights, but these interventions are also ineffective, even in their intended purpose,” says Regeuiro De Giacomi. She adds: “The gender identity law took a first step in dissociating legal gender from genitalia, and that helped intersex people a lot. In Argentina, that association doesn’t exist.”
The need for the project to be supported by the LGBTI community
Cabral argues that the project will face two problems: resistance from the medical system and “media mismanagement”: “We think we could be attacked and portrayed in a misleading way,” he says. That's why he believes the support of the entire LGBT movement is crucial because “with this law, what we're going to prevent are human rights violations.”
[READ ALSO: Hearing at the IACHR highlighted violence against intersex people]
The activist believes there are many reasons for this law to be passed, “which will also be replicated in other countries,” he says. Internationally, we created the framework for the bodily integrity of intersex people. We want to use that work, which we've been doing internationally, in Argentina.
“I am an intersex person who has experienced different forms of medical violence in our country. That is why it is essential to put an end to it,” she concludes.
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