intersex.shadowreport.org

>>> deutsch      >>> http://intersex.schattenbericht.org

>>> CRC Chronology 2014/15 + Thematic Swiss NGO Report on IGMs

NGO Submission to List of Issues to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Periodic Report of Switzerland on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

>>> Download as PDF (826 kb)

Compiled by:

Child Rights Network Switzerland
Paragraph on Intersex:
Zwischengeschlecht.org

Submitted 4 December 2014.
This submission's para on IGMs refers to the Thematic NGO Submission re: LoI (5 Dec 2014).
The Review of Switzerland will be on  January 21st–22nd 2015 in Geneva. In advance, Zwischengeschlecht.org is invited to brief the Committee on IGMs on the global scale.
>>> Chrolonogy

The entry on Intersex Genital Mutilations on p. 10 of the NGO Report:

Important issues that are not part of the List of Issues:

Intersex genital mutilation

Update: Since the NGO Report submitted by Child Rights Network Switzerland highlighted non-consensual, unnecessary genital surgeries on intersex children justified by psychosocial indications, eight more UN bodies including UNICEF have criticised such surgeries, and, in accordance with the Joint general recommendation on harmful practices, have called for legal review, access to remedies, collection of data and monitoring. Nonetheless, the Swiss government refuses to take action, and non-consensual intersex childhood surgeries continue unchecked and with factual impunity. Swiss intersex organisations stress adverse effects of the silence of the Committee regarding the obligation of Switzerland to protect intersex children, as well as doctors construing silence as encouragement to continue with unnecessary surgeries (see NGO submission by Zwischengeschlecht et al.).
Question: We recommend that the Committee ask the State Party delegation whether it will initiate a legal review, data collection, monitoring and disinterested research, in consultation with intersex people and their organisations, and if this is not the case, why it is not planning any activities.

>>> CRC Chronology 2014/15 + Thematic Swiss NGO Report on IGMs

>>> deutsch      >>> http://intersex.schattenbericht.org

>>> CRC Chronology 2014/15 + Thematic Swiss NGO Report on IGMs

NGO Report to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Periodic Report of Switzerland on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

>>> Download as PDF (2.4 MB)

Compiled by:

Child Rights Network Switzerland
Entry on Intersex:
Zwischengeschlecht.org

Submitted in March 2014.
The Pre-Session on Switzerland will be in June 2014, the Review in January 2015.
>>> Chrolonogy 

The entry on Intersex Genital Mutilations on p. 25–26 of the NGO Report:

4.6 Protection against abuse: Genital mutilation

Assessment by the Child Rights Network Switzerland

[Intersex Genital Mutilations]

Since 1950, children with atypical sex anatomies (intersex, DSD, hermaphrodites) are systematically subjected to irreversible, medically unnecessary interventions in an attempt to fix their sex. Such interventions include cosmetic genital surgery, castration, sterilisation and hormone treatment. Swiss clinics were significantly involved in the global propagation of “genital correction surgeries”. As female sex organs are surgically easier to shape than male organs, most children were made into girls, often by amputating their “enlarged” clitoris. Parents were misinformed, kept in the dark and received no appropriate support. Treatment of such nature leads to serious physical and psychological complications. For the last 20 years, victims and NGOs have been criticising these interventions as a massive violation of human rights, including the right to physical integrity, denouncing them as “intersex genital mutilation”. The UN-Committees CEDAW and CAT, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), the Council of Europe (COE) and the National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics (NEK) criticise these interventions as a violation of human rights and demand legislative measures (NEK, SRT, COE), historical reappraisal, acknowledgement by society of suffering inflicted (NEK) and compensation for victims (NEK, CAT).

The Child Rights Network Switzerland recommends that the Committee oblige Switzerland:

–– to implement the full range of recommendations by the National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics “On the management of differences of sex development” (intersex, DSD), to consider legislative measures banning cosmetic genital surgery on intersex children, to conduct a historical appraisal of the human rights violations inflicted on intersex children and youth in society, and to compensate victims in an appropriate manner;

(Unfortunately, all the subheaders in the section on mutilation were 'lost in translation.')

In addition, Zwischengeschlecht.org successfully requested that on p. 15 of the report (regarding Discrimination) "Intersex" was not only mentioned in the assessment, but the "I" also added in the subheading and in the recommendations. Thanks!

>>> CRC Chronology 2014/15 + Thematic Swiss NGO Report on IGMs