On the 30th – 31st of March 2017 in Vienna, Austria the first OII Europe community event took place. During the community event 28 Intersex people from 16 Council of Europe member states, some activists and some not, came together to share their experiences, and their varied objectives and strategies for the full implementation of human rights, bodily integrity, self-determination and societal acceptance of intersex people within Europe.
We affirm that intersex people are real, and we exist in all regions and all countries around the world.
We reaffirm the Malta Declaration and its demands, formulated at the 3rd International Intersex Forum (2013), as well as the objectives formulated by the 1st European Intersex Meeting in the Riga Statement (2014).
We also stress the fact, that until this day more than 50 times UN bodies, regional and national human rights bodies have called on governments, policy makers and stakeholders to put an end to human rights violations faced by intersex people – including taking the necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to guarantee respect for the physical integrity and autonomy of intersex persons and to ensure that no one is subjected during infancy or childhood to non-urgent medical or surgical procedures intended to decide the sex of the child.
Ensuring the right of intersex people of bodily integrity, physical autonomy and self-determination must be a priority in all action taken. Intersex people must be supported to be the drivers of social, political and legislative changes that concern them.
We therefore call on governments to:
• Recognise intersex people as a community that has specific and vital needs and that their human rights need protection.
To this aim governments should take decisive action to:
• Install legislative protections that ban medical interventions on children with variations of sex characteristics, on social, psychosocial, cultural or cosmetic grounds. A ban on Intersex genital mutilation is necessary as IGM is equatable with female genital mutilation that takes place within hospital settings. Th is may include installing legislative measures that penalise medical professionals that commit or assist in IGM.