Today we celebrate Intersex Awareness Day 2020. To mark this important event, we encourage you to watch our webinar, hosted in cooperation with the Permanent Representation of Finland to the Council of Europe on the subject of advancing the human rights of intersex persons. We were honoured to have Dunja Mijatović, Commissioner for Human Rights and Thomas Blomqvist, Minister for Nordic Cooperation and Equality of Finland opening the meeting, highlighting the importance of the occasion.
Central to the discussions was a study commissioned by the Finnish Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which investigated how the decisions made when an intersex child is born and the treatments the child receives in childhood and adolescence affected their lives later down the line, as well as the experiences of the parents of intersex children in the Finnish healthcare system and society. The author of the study, Tikli Oikarinen, featured as a panellist in the discussions on lessons learned in legislation and best practices.
Estimates of the share of intersex persons in the population vary from 0.02% to 1.7%, making them a significant, albeit largely invisible and underserved, group in Member States. Panel 2 critically engaged the work done to date to ensure the rights of intersex persons in Member States to date, what remains to be done, and the next steps forward.
We were joined by a number of expert speakers and panellists including;
- Ambassador Nina Nordström, Permanent Representation of Finland to the Council of Europe
- Kaisli Syrjänen, Chair of NGO “Intersukupuolisten ihmisoikeudet – ISIO ry” Grassroots experiences of advancing Intersex-rights
- Calleja Gabriella, Head SOGIESC Unit, Human Rights and Integration Directorate, Malta
- Jeroen Schokkenbroek, Director of Antidiscrimination Directorate, Council of Europe
- Dan Christian Ghattas, Executive Director of International Intersex Organisation
- Fourat Ben Chikha, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly-LGBTI General Rapporteur
- Michael Farrell, First Vice-Chair of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)-Council of Europe
- Laurence Lwoff, Head of Bioethics Unit, Council of Europe
The discussions were moderated by Eleni Tsetsekou, Head of the Council of Europe SOGI Unit.
View the panel discussion HERE.
