Colombia High Court Restricts Intersex Genital Mutilation



|Colombia High Court Restricts Intersex Genital Mutilation |

|Date: October 26, 1999 |Latin America & Caribbean » Colombia » Press Release |

|Colombia High Court Restricts Intersex Genital Mutilation: |

|First High Court to Address Human Rights Violation |

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|Joint Press Release: ISNA, IGLHRC, NCLR |

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|For Immediate Release: October 26, 1999 |

|BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- The Constitutional Court of Colombia recently issued two decisions (SU-337/99, May 12 1999 and T-551/99, Aug 2, |

|1999) which significantly restrict the ability of parents and doctors to resort to the scalpel when children are born with atypical |

|genitals. These surgeries -- also known as IGM, or Intersex Genital Mutilation -- have been widely practiced for over 40 years in |

|most industrialized countries. In the US experts estimate that at least five children are cut every day. "Here in the US, doctors |

|who perform IGM continue to reject the voices of those harmed by the surgery. Current laws do not protect us," noted Cheryl Chase of|

|the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA). |

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|This is the first time that a high court anywhere has considered whether IGM is a violation of human rights. |

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|Colombia's Constitutional Court went further than the pressing issue of IGM. The Court recognized that intersex people are a |

|minority which enjoys the constitutional protection of the State against discrimination, and that every individual has a |

|constitutional right to define his or her own sexual identity. The Court concluded both decisions with the same emphatic |

|exhortation: |

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|"Intersexed people question our capacity for tolerance and constitute a challenge to the acceptance of difference. Public |

|authorities, the medical community and the citizenry at large have the duty to open up a space for these people who have until now |

|been silenced [...] We all have to listen to them, and not only to learn how to live with them, but also to learn from them." |

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|"We hope that human rights activists around the world will follow the Court's mandate," stated Sydney Levy of the International Gay |

|and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. "Mutilation is torture any way you look at it." |

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|The Court's decision came after an exhaustive, year-long investigation, in which it weighed arguments by doctors and parents -- who |

|insist on surgery to make babies "normal" -- against opposition to the practice by those harmed by IGM, including an amicus brief by|

|ISNA. "The Court noted that this is not a medical decision, but a judicial and ethical decision. Ethicists in the US have uniformly |

|denounced IGM as unethical, but until US courts act, American doctors will continue to perform IGM on 2,000 children every year," |

|noted Chase. |

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|In addition to the Colombian Constitution, the Court also based its holding on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the |

|Child. According to Shannon Minter, staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, "the Court recognized that children |

|are persons entitled to human rights, not simply the property of parents and/or the state. By holding that parents must place the |

|well-being and best interests of their child above social prejudice, the Court affirmed the inherent dignity and worth of all |

|children, including those who are gender variant." The US is not a signatory of the Convention. |

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|More information on the decisions is available in "Colombia High Court Limits Surgery on Intersexed Infants," by Julie Greenberg, |

|Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, at Colombia.  |

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|ISNA works to create a world free of shame, secrecy, and genital mutilation for people born with atypical sex anatomy. For more |

|information, visit our web site at   |

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|IGLHRC's mission is to protect and advance the human rights of all people and communities subject to discrimination or abuse on the |

|basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status. |

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|NCLR is a lesbian, feminist, multi-cultural legal resource center dedicated to creating a world in which all lesbians can live |

|fully, without fear of discrimination. |

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|Sentencia SU-337/99  |

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|Sentencia No. T-477/95 |

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