| Absztrakt | Every year, children are born with sex characteristics – genitals, gonads, hormones, chromosomes or
reproductive organs – which vary from the established norms for ‘male’ and ‘female’. These variations of sex
characteristics differ in nature and frequency. Some have a recognised medical diagnosis, others do not.
Some are apparent from birth, others become apparent at puberty or even later. Still others are never
detected or diagnosed.
Some people – but not everyone - with a variation of sex characteristics uses the term ‘intersex’. The Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has stated that “intersex people are born with sex
characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of
male or female bodies.”
In this report, Amnesty International documents the specific human rights violations faced by children and
adults with variations of sex characteristics. We focus specifically on the human rights violations – in
particular the violation of their rights to a private life, to the highest attainable standard of health, to bodily
integrity, self-determination and recognition before the law - experienced in the course of non-emergency,
invasive and irreversible ‘normalising’ surgeries and other medical practices, and the failure of the state to
protect individuals against these violations.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has made clear in General Comment
14 that States, as the parties to the the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ICESCR), have a responsibility to ensure that all members of society, “including health professionals” fulfil
their responsibilities regarding the realisation of the right to health.
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