Saturday, November 14, 2009

Human Rights Issues for Intersex People In Aotearoa-NZ

By Yann Bradburn.

In July of this year, Mani Bruce Mitchell and I met for an initial talk with the NZ Human Rights Commission on Intersex issues. We were the only intersex people to attend and we met with both the commission plus many professionals with an interest in intersex.

This talk had its origins a few years earlier, when we were asked to discuss whether intersex should be included in a report which had been commissioned on Trans issues. The decision then, was to keep them seperate. Both Mani and I stated we wished intersex to be dealt with later, as we felt the issues could be confused, and that intersex issues are often very different from those of transpeople.

However many intersex people gave submissions through the trans enquiry and this has led the commission to start the first stages on an Intersex enquiry earlier, overlapping into their continued work in addressing transpeoples issues within our country. This is good for us. It also ties into what is happeneing in Australia and NZ is very interested in following what happens there and in Asia. They may be influenced by this; this is yet to be seen.

NZ has a history of setting guidelines for the rest of the world; so we will see.

To read the full report. Visit OII-New Zealand. Click here

1 comment:

  1. hi being a intersex person who found out the truth later on in life,im truelly disgusted i havent been told of my surgeries as a infant,but not only that so many other people knew i was intersex ,when i didnt,how disgusting this is to make me so vunerbale,people knowing the most private parts of my life while im lied and decieved,please end all shame and tell people who they are and whats been done to them as infants,still mad but recovering chch.

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