Mr President,
Human Rights Watch thanks the High Commissioner for this important report and calls on states to urgently implement its recommendations.
For decades, medical professionals and policymakers have ignored the voices of intersex people, consistently failing to respect their right to full, free, and informed consent before their bodies are irreversibly altered.
Some argue that early childhood surgeries reduce stigma and promote “normalcy,” or that they help children develop cisgender, heterosexual identities through bodies that appear more typical. But these claims lack scientific support. In fact, the widespread adoption of these procedures occurred without evidence of benefit—only to later reveal extensive harm. These surgeries often create the very stigma and dysphoria they aim to prevent, and can result in lifelong physical and psychological consequences, including scarring, loss of sensation, sexual dysfunction, incontinence, trauma, and sterilization.
A human rights framework is essential to ending these practices. International human rights bodies, including UN treaty bodies, have repeatedly found that these interventions violate fundamental rights.
We welcome recent progress in banning or regulating such surgeries, including in Greece, Malta, Spain, and parts of India and Australia. We are also encouraged by the growing number of medical associations worldwide that now oppose non-consensual surgeries aimed at "normalizing" children’s bodies.
All people, including those with intersex traits, deserve the right to bodily autonomy and dignity. This starts with allowing children to grow up in their own healthy, if different, bodies—without being subjected to harmful, irreversible interventions.
