Markus Bauer @ Genital Autonomy 2014: “Legislation to end Intersex Genital Mutilation: A social movement whose time has come?”

Markus Bauer (Zwischengeschlecht.org) is an invited speaker at “Genital Autonomy 2014” / Abstracts (PDF) in Boulder (Colorado), July 24-26. Together with fellow activist Hida Viloria (OII), Markus will represent intersex issues at GA 2014.
“Genital Autonomy”, established in 1989, is a bi-annual international symposium on children’s rights promoting interdisciplinary dialogue about genital cutting practices of male, female, and intersex children. The last symposium’s (abstracts, PDF) speakers on intersex in 2012 were Julius Kaggwa (SIPD, Uganda) and Mika Venhola (youtube-interview), and the symposium issued the 2012 “Helsinki Declaration of the Right to Genital Autonomy”.

Abstract: “Legislation to end Intersex Genital Mutilation: A social movement whose time has come?”

In 1950, systematic early cosmetic genital surgeries on children with variations of sex anatomy were introduced in North America and Europe, and eventually became the de-facto medical standard all over the ‘developed world’. In 1993, survivors started organising against this practice, deploring loss of sexual sensation, framing the non-consensual surgeries as grave human rights violations, namely against the right to physical integrity, and as Intersex Genital Mutilations (IGM), calling for legislation.

Since 2012, after a resurgence of political intersex activism including use of nonviolent action, human rights mechanisms, and lawsuits against perpetrators, this call for legislation has finally been recognised as legitimate and necessary by national and international ethics and human rights bodies, and echoed in parliament.

I’ll analyse the ongoing 20-year-struggle to end IGM in terms of grassroots’ models of social movements, and discuss how an emerging global intersex social movement can succeed in banning IGM within the next decade.

Markus Bauer is the co-founder and campaign organiser of the international human rights NGO Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org, and legally responsible for their online presence. He is the partner of an intersex person, and a decade-long writer, editor, performing artist, political activist, and social organiser. Since 2007, he facilitated countless nonviolent intersex protests in front of mutilators’ clinics and medical congresses, as well as parliamentary motions, submissions and testimonies for ethics and human rights bodies. He has spoken and published internationally on IGM at universities and symposia, and appeared on radio and television, and in newspapers and magazines, including the Wall Street Journal. Zurich, Switzerland.

VIDEO Action vs. ‘I-D$D’ Genital Mutilators!
4th I-D$D Symposium, Glasgow 2013
Thanks to Richard Duncker (MenDoComplain)

>>> on Vimeo

VIDEO Action vs. ‘ISHID’ Live Mutilators!
IV ISHID World Congress, London 2012
Thanks to Richard Duncker (MenDoComplain)
>>> on Youtube 

Intersex Genital Mutilations
Human Rights Violations Of Children With Variations Of Sex Anatomy

2014 NGO Report to the UN Committe on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Documents 17 Forms of IGMs and Nazi-Crimes a.o. in CH, D, A
>>> Download PDF (3.65 MB)    
>>>
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