 Intersex Asia activist Esan Regmi at first Nepal Pride Parade | |
| Formation | 2018 |
|---|---|
| Type | NGO |
| Purpose | Intersex human rights advocacy and support |
| Headquarters | Taiwan |
Region served | Asia |
Notable board members | Jeff Cagandahan, Hiker Chiu, Esan Regmi, Small Luk and Gopi Shankar Madurai |
| Website | intersexasia |
Intersex Asia is a pan-Asian intersex human rights organization, established in 2018 and registered in Taiwan. [1] [2]
Intersex Asia was established at the First Asian Intersex Forum on February 10, 2018, in Bangkok, Thailand. [3] [4] The forum brought together 14 people from Hong Kong (China), India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. [3] Notable representatives and spokespeople include Jeff Cagandahan, Hiker Chiu, Esan Regmi, [5] Small Luk and Gopi Shankar Madurai. [3] [6] Indian human rights lawyer Prashant Singh has been appointed as coordinator. [7]
Intersex Asia aims to promote and protect the human rights of intersex people in Asia, including rights to bodily integrity, [8] physical autonomy and self determination, and it also aims to provide a representative voice. [3] In a founding statement the organization identifies key issues including "discrimination, violence and killings of intersex people by a number of cultural, religious, traditional and medical beliefs and practices". [3] [9] [10] The organization is supported by Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, COC, Mama Cash, Open Society Foundations and RFSL. [1] [11] [12]
Amongst its activities, Intersex Asia has published translations of information on key issues and human rights by United Nations Free & Equal into Asian languages including Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Filipino, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Malay, Nepali, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Vietnamese. [13]
Intersex Asia is a member of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Nepal have expanded in the 21st century, though much of Nepal's advancements on LGBT rights have come from the judiciary and not the legislature. Same-sex sexual acts have been legal in Nepal since 2007 after a ruling by the Supreme Court of Nepal.
Laws governing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are complex in Asia, and acceptance of LGBT persons is generally low. Same-sex sexual activity is outlawed in at least twenty Asian countries. In Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen homosexual activity is punishable by death. In addition, LGBT people also face extrajudicial executions from non-state actors such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. While egalitarian relationships have become more frequent in recent years, they remain rare.
Geetanjali Misra is the co-founder and executive director of Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action, a women's rights and non-governmental organization based in New Delhi. Geetanjali has worked at an activist, grant-making and policy levels on issues of sexuality, reproductive health, gender, human rights and gender-based violence. Presently, she is on the Amnesty International Gender Task Force, Spotlight Civil Society reference group and a board member of Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.
Intersex Awareness Day is an internationally observed awareness day each October 26, designed to highlight human rights issues faced by intersex people.
Intersex civil society organizations have existed since at least the mid-1980s. They include peer support groups and advocacy organizations active on health and medical issues, human rights, legal recognition, and peer and family support. Some groups, including the earliest, were open to people with specific intersex traits, while others are open to people with many different kinds of intersex traits.
Mauro Cabral Grinspan, also known as Mauro Cabral, is an Argentinian intersex and trans activist, who serves as the Senior Officer for Gender Justice and Equity at the Global Philanthropy Project. Before that, he was the Executive Director of GATE. His work - as a signatory of the Yogyakarta Principles - focuses on the reform of medical protocols and law reform. In July 2015, Cabral received the inaugural Bob Hepple Equality Award.
The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice is an international charitable foundation based in the United States focused on human rights of LGBT people, intersex people, and people of color. The organization provide grants to individuals and organizations, promotes philanthropy, and provides capacity building assistance.
Hiker Chiu is a Taiwanese intersex human rights activist who founded Oii-Chinese in 2008 and cofounded Intersex Asia in 2018.
Dan Christian Ghattas is an intersex activist, university lecturer and author who co-founded OII Europe in 2012 and is now executive director. In 2013, he authored Human Rights between the Sexes, a first comparative international analysis of the human rights situation of intersex people.
Natasha Jiménez is a trans and intersex activist and author who is currently the General Coordinator for MULABI, Latin American Space for Sexualities and Rights, the first host of the Intersex Secretariat for ILGA. She is an advisory board member for the first intersex human rights fund and participated in the first intersex hearing on human rights before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Ruth Baldacchino is an LGBT and intersex activist, former Co-Secretary General of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, and Senior Program Officer for the first intersex human rights fund.
Nthabiseng Mokoena is a prominent South African intersex activist and an advisory board member for the first intersex human rights fund.
Small Luk is an intersex human rights activist and the first intersex person to openly acknowledge her biological sex characteristics in Hong Kong. She was born with partial androgen insensitivity syndrome (PAIS). Luk lived as a male for 36 years, and now identifies and lives as a woman, after changing her sex characteristics from intersex to female through gender-affirming surgery, upon doctors' advice to undergo the surgery because her type of PAIS would most likely have caused cancer.
Sean Saifa Wall is an African-American researcher, and long-time advocate for intersex rights. He is a queer, transgender, and intersex man of color and former president of Interact Advocates for Intersex Youth. He approaches his work to end intersex oppression through an intersectional lens.
The Malta declaration is the statement of the Third International Intersex Forum, which took place in Valletta, Malta, in 2013. The event was supported by the ILGA and ILGA-Europe and brought together 34 people representing 30 organisations from multiple regions of the world.
In 2015, Nepal introduced constitutional recognition for "gender and sexual minorities". Despite this, the rights situation of intersex people in Nepal is unclear. Local activists have identified human rights violations, including significant gaps in protection of rights to physical integrity and bodily autonomy, and protection from discrimination. A first national meeting of intersex people look place in early 2016,Organised by First openly Intersex Rights Activist Esan Regmi in Nepal. with support from the UNDP.
Noelene Nabulivou is a Fijian activist and spokesperson on climate change, sustainable development, and gender equality. She is the co-founder and political advisor for Diverse Voices and Action for Equality (DIVA), an organisation that promotes climate justice, reducing violence against women, human rights, and LGBTQ rights.
InterAction is a Swiss organization for intersex people, parents, friends and allies to educate, provide peer support and address human rights issues.
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