We congratulate the African intersex community on the Res.552 which was adopted by the ACHPR on the 7th of march 2023 in its 74th ordinary session in line with the African Commission’s mandate under article 45 of the African charter to interpret the rights in the charter.
The Res.552 was adopted with the realization that Intersex persons face a lot of human rights violations in the form of unnecessary genital ‘normalizing’ surgeries on minors, a lack of appropriate legal recognition and poor birth registration processes, discrimination in the justice system, infanticide, baby dumping and various forms of discrimination in other spheres of life and that the existing legislative gap in African countries on the laws protecting intersex persons has contributed to these human rights violations.
The resolution therefore calls upon states parties to Promote and protect the rights of intersex persons on the continent, stop non-consensual genital normalization especially on minors, end infanticides and abandonment, prohibit discrimination of intersex persons. States are duly called upon to also protect intersex human rights defenders, incorporate intersex education into prenatal counselling, enact enabling legislation and institutionalize administrative processes that allow intersex persons to change gender designation on official documents and raise awareness of intersex issues and their rights.
Special congratulatory messages go out to the team at SIPD Uganda and our partners who contributed to the adoption of this resolution including the Centre for Human rights at the University of Pretoria, Intersex Persons of Kenya, Intersex Society of Zambia, Intersex Community of Zimbabwe and Rainbow Identity from Botswana.
Visit https://achpr.au.int/en/adopted-resolutions/resolution-promotion-and-protection-rights-intersex-persons for more information about the Resolution 552.