Intersex rights in China including the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, the

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Special Administrative Region, etc., are protections and rights afforded to

intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...

people through legislation and regulation. Obligations also arise in United Nations member states that sign international human rights treaties, such as the People's Republic of China. Intersex people in China suffer discrimination. Issues include both lack of access to health care and coercive genital surgeries.

History

In February 2018, Asian intersex activists published the Statement of Intersex Asia and the Asian Intersex Forum, setting out local demands.

Physical integrity and bodily autonomy

Protection of intersex children from harmful practices

Small Luk Small Luk is the first intersex person to openly acknowledge her biological sex characteristics in Hong Kong. She was born with partial androgen insensitivity syndrome. Luk lived as a male for 36 years, and now lives as a woman. She founded the o ...

(Hong Kong) describes traditional Chinese society as patriarchal, promoting the sex assignment of intersex children as boys wherever possible. She states that the "

one-child policy The term one-child policy () refers to a population planning initiative in China implemented between 1980 and 2015 to curb the country's population growth by restricting many families to a single child. That initiative was part of a much bro ...

" in mainland China led to the abandonment, neglect and deaths of many intersex infants. Both Luk and Taiwan activist

Hiker Chiu Hiker Chiu (; born 1966) is a Taiwanese intersex human rights activist who founded Oii-Chinese in 2008 and cofounded Intersex Asia in 2018. Early life Chiu did not fully develop the secondary sexual characteristics expected of women during his/h ...

have disclosed personal histories involving unwanted medical interventions. Chiu says that surgical "normalisation" practices began in Taiwan in 1953.

Intersex medical interventions Intersex medical interventions, also known as intersex genital mutilations (IGM), are surgical, hormonal and other medical interventions performed to modify atypical or ambiguous genitalia and other sex characteristics, primarily for the purposes ...

are encouraged as early as possible in both Hong Kong and the People's Republic. A 2014 clinical review of 22 infants with

congenital adrenal hyperplasia Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a group of autosomal recessive disorders characterized by impaired cortisol synthesis. It results from the deficiency of one of the five enzymes required for the synthesis of cortisol in the adrenal cortex. ...

in Hong Kong, for example, shows that all infants in the study received clitorectomies. It also showed a preference for early surgeries when infants are aged 1–2 years, and an assessment of surgical success focusing on genital appearance and necessity for further cosmetic surgeries. The cost of medical interventions in the People's Republic of China makes medical treatment inaccessible, resulting in fewer coercive interventions but exacerbating health issues for some individuals, and issues of abandonment and violence. In a submission to the

United Nations Committee Against Torture The Committee Against Torture (CAT) is a treaty body of human rights experts that monitors implementation of the United Nations Convention against Torture by state parties. The Committee is one of eight UN-linked human rights treaty bodies. Al ...

in 2015, Beyond the Boundary - Knowing and Concerns Intersex raised concerns about lack of self-determination in Hong Kong and China, forced medical interventions in Hong Kong, lack of government assistance and marriage rights, and problems with violence and discrimination. In a response to submissions for Hong Kong, the United Nations Committee published recommendations calling for the postponement of "non-urgent, irreversible medical interventions" until children are old enough to provide full, free and informed consent. The committee called for an investigation into forced, involuntary and coercive practices in the People's Republic, along with measures to protect the autonomy and "physical and personal integrity of LGBTI persons".

Protection from discrimination

Inclusion of sex characteristics in anti-discrimination law

Press reports in 2015 and 2016 have provided examples of abandonment, neglect and even attempted murder. The

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

reported the abandonment of an intersex baby in a part in Shandong province in mid-2015, followed by allegations of attempts to murder an intersex infant as a "monster", in Henan province, in mid-2016. In 2017, the Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission together with the Gender Research Centre of the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university an ...

asked the Hong Kong government to introduce legislation offering protection against discrimination on the grounds of

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

and intersex status.

Remedies and claims for compensation

The United Nations Committee Against Torture has called for compensation for involuntary and medically unnecessary medical interventions in both the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong.

Identification documents

has campaigned for self-determination of gender identity, and also for third gender recognition in Hong Kong.

Rights advocacy in Greater China region

The first people to publicly disclose being intersex were

Oii-Chinese Oii-Chinese (國際陰陽人組織 — 中文版) is an intersex advocacy and support group and the Chinese-language affiliate of Organisation Intersex International. Oii-Chinese, founded by Hiker Chiu in 2008, is active in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and ...

, based in Taiwan and founded in 2008, and

of Beyond the Boundary - Knowing and Concerns Intersex, Hong Kong, founded in 2011. Chiu started a "free hugs with intersex" campaign at Taipei's LGBT Pride Parade in 2010. Oii-Chinese also gives lectures and lobbies government. The aims of Beyond the Boundary - Knowing and Concerns Intersex are to raise public awareness about intersex people and promote the rights of intersex people, including ending forced genital normalising surgery and

conversion therapies Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. In contrast to evidence-based medicine and cl ...

. Luk urges the Hong Kong government to educate the public about intersex conditions, extend

anti-discrimination laws Anti-discrimination law or non-discrimination law refers to legislation designed to prevent discrimination against particular groups of people; these groups are often referred to as protected groups or protected classes. Anti-discrimination laws ...

to cover intersex people and stop foisting surgery on intersex children without consulting them.

References

Bibliography

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