Annette Bromdal

Intersex: a Challenge for Human Rights and Citizenship Rights Annette Bromdal

Is it a Girl or is it a Boy? This is usually one of the first questions the parents of the newborn baby ask, and in most cases this question can be answered rather quickly. However, in some cases the baby is born with an Intersex condition where the situation is more complex and our mainstream understanding of sex and gender is insufficient and rigid. Because Intersex individuals have, since the 1950s, undergone forced, unwanted and uninformed genital corrective surgeries during their childhood to fit the sex and gender norms of our society and because Intersex has since long only been considered a medical matter, the Intersex phenomenon has developed into a human rights debate. This work therefore challenges the Intersex phenomenon in South Africa from a human rights and a citizenship rights perspective because Intersex children are viewed as different on two accounts - their status as children and Intersexed - and focuses on the treatment Intersex infants receive by medical and non-medical institutions as well as how they as a group are included/excluded and mentioned/not mentioned within the South African legal system and the UNCRC.