Human Rights Watch (HRW) Thursday applauded the passage of an African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) resolution supporting the rights of intersex individuals. The resolution pulled from the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to protect intersex individuals in Africa. The resolution called for African states to “promote and protect the rights of intersex persons on the continent” and to “stop non-consensual normalization practices on intersex persons.”The resolution also drew parallels between normalization procedures on intersex people and genital mutilation. Normalization procedures are used to alter intersex individual’s anatomy so as to bring them within the gender binary–resulting in either solely female or solely male bodies. The resolution warned that the practice has the potential to cause intersex individuals “lifelong physical and psychological suffering, permanent sterility, incontinence, and loss of sexual pleasure.”Looking forward, the resolution called upon African states to institute comprehensive education programs so as to end human rights violation against intersex people–such as infanticide and abandonment–and discrimination.

Source: New York Times April 09, 2023 02:07 UTC