The Darbon Institute welcomes Australia recently signing onto the UN statement to end non-consensual, medically unnecessary interventions on people with innate variations in sex characteristics (also known as intersex people), and moves in Victoria to introduce a scheme to do just that.

The proposed changes are supported by the long-awaited Australian Human Rights Commission report: Ensuring health and bodily integrity: towards a human rights approach for people born with variations in sex characteristics (the Report).

Importantly, the Report recommends that “medical interventions modifying sex characteristics of children may be conducted without personal consent only in circumstances of medical necessity”.

Quotes attributable to Darbon Institute Chair Jonathan Meddings

“Recent progress on protecting and promoting the human rights of intersex people didn’t happen overnight. It reflects the many years of tireless advocacy from organisations like Intersex Human Rights Australia and Intersex Peer Support Australia.”

“The Darbon Institute looks forward to working constructively with governments at all levels to ensure Australia and New Zealand are fulfilling their obligations under international law and that all children are protected from non-consensual, medically unnecessary procedures regardless of their sex characteristics.”

“It is essential that legislation to protect intersex people from non-consensual, medically unnecessary alterations of their sex characteristics does not make an exception for non-consensual, medically unnecessary circumcision of the penis.”

“A legislative and regulatory framework that protects all children from non-consensual, medically unnecessary alterations of their bodies is the goal, and moves to better protect intersex people are an important and long overdue part of that.”

For more information

Jonathan Meddings | Chair | Darbon Institute

[email protected] | +61 437 435 091 | www.darboninstitute.org

Download a PDF of this release.