End harmful practices, including forced and coercive medical interventions, to ensure the bodily integrity of children with intersex variations
Proponent:
In June 2021, the Austrian National Council unanimously passed resolution 1594/A(E) on the „Protection of intersex children and adolescents from medically unnecessary treatments of their sex characteristics“ (see parliament’s website: here). The Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ) then set up a working group – with the involvement of civil society, psychotherapists and doctors – to draw up a draft law. The working group completed its work in November 2021. A corresponding draft has been pending since then. Back in 2020, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child called on Austria to protect intersex children from non-necessary and non-consensual medical interventions. The Committee described this practice as „harmful and referred to the UN Convention against Torture“. Austria was already reprimanded by the UN Committee against Torture in 2015 for such treatments (reprimands to Austria in the VIMÖ/PIÖ position paper: https://vimoe.at/2020/02/25/februar-2020-un-kinderrechtsausschuss-ruegt-oesterreich-fuer-nicht-notwendige-behandlungen-an-inter-kindern/). The European Commission’s LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025 also calls for an end to this „genital mutilation of intersex people (see: https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/combatting-discrimination/lesbian-gay-bi-trans-and-intersex-equality/lgbtiq-equality-strategy-2020-2025_e). International organisations, including the UN, the European Parliament and the European Commission, also support the end of these practices. Other European countries such as Malta, Greece and Germany have already passed corresponding laws. Self-advocacy organisations such as the Verein Intergeschlechtlicher Menschen Österreich (VIMÖ/OII Austria) are calling for a law to protect intersex children and young people or children and young people with variations in gender characteristics (VIMÖ website: https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20230411_OTS0032/vimoe-zu-lgbtiq-intergroup-im-parlament-intergeschlechtliche-kinder-muessen-geschuetzt-werden-verbot-seit-zwei-jahren-ausstaendig). On 10 May 2020, the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) issued new recommendations to Austria on the protection of intersex people. In points 42 and 43 of its „Concluding Observations“, the Committee is in favour of a legal regulation that prohibits medically unnecessary interventions on children. It also recommends compensating people who have undergone such interventions and setting up counselling and support structures. These recommendations build on those of the 2015 CAT, in which Austria was also called upon to ensure the protection of intersex people from harmful interventions. To date, Austria has not implemented these recommendations.
