Intersex rights in China | |
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Location of the People's Republic of China
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Protection of physical integrity and bodily autonomy | No |
Reparations | No |
Protection from discrimination | No |
Rights by country | |
Intersex rights in China including the People's Republic of China, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Taiwan, are protections and rights afforded to intersex 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.
Small Luk (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" in mainland China led to the abandonment, neglect and deaths of many intersex infants.
Both Luk and Taiwan activist Hiker Chiu have disclosed personal histories involving unwanted medical interventions. Chiu says that surgical "normalisation" practices began in Taiwan in 1953. Intersex medical interventions 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 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 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".