At SIPD Uganda, we are ecstatic at the landmark leadership that Malta has taken in recognizing and protecting the rights and bodily autonomy of intersex babies and people.
MALTA has become the first country in the world to outlaw medical practitioners or other professionals from conducting any involuntary or coerced surgical intervention on minors with intersex variations.
The Gender Identity Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act was passed through Maltese Parliament with cross party support, without a vote, in the early of the morning in Australian time.
A first of its kind around the world, the passage of the bill has been met with praise by Organisation Intersex International (OII) Australia, along with various European intersex and trans* organisations.
The new law officially recognises the right to bodily integrity and physical autonomy and protects intersex infants and children from non-necessary medical interventions. These sorts of medical procedures still take place in Australia and around the world, with parental distress or improving marriage prospects as common reasons for it.
Malta’s Gender Identity Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act also meets several other key demands of the intersex movement, including the 2013 recommendations of an Australian Senate committee report.