 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.
LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
In 2007 Nepal repealed the laws against gay sex and introduced several laws which explicitly protected sexual orientation. The Nepalese Constitution now recognizes LGBT rights as fundamental rights. Based on a ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal in late 2007, the government was also considering the legalization of same-sex marriage. According to several sources, the Constitution of 2015 was expected to include it. Although the Constitution explicitly says that "marginalized" communities are to be granted equal rights under the law, and that Nepal's LGBT people fall into this category, it does not explicitly address the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Laws governing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are complex in Asia, and acceptance of LGBT persons varies widely. Same-sex sexual activity is outlawed in at least twenty Asian countries. As of 2023, Cyprus, Israel and Taiwan provide a wider range of LGBT rights – such as same-sex relationship recognition, while at least nine countries, such as Georgia, Singapore and Thailand, have enacted protections for LGBT people. In Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen homosexual activity is punishable with the death penalty. 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.
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) [previously known as Forum-Asia] is a membership-based regional human rights organisation with 85 member organisations in 23 countries across Asia. It is committed to the promotion and protection of all human rights including the right to development.
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 executive director of GATE. A signatory of the Yogyakarta Principles, his work 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 issues related to LGBT and intersex rights for 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 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 organization "Beyond Boundaries – Knowing and Concerns Intersex" in 2011, which is concerned with, and strives for, the rights of intersex people.
The following is a timeline of intersex history.
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.
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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