BETA


2018/2878(RSP) Resolution on the rights of intersex people

Progress: Procedure completed

RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Lead LIBE MORAES Claude (icon: S&D S&D) CORAZZA BILDT Anna Maria (icon: PPE PPE), VIOTTI Daniele (icon: S&D S&D), STEVENS Helga (icon: ECR ECR), IN 'T VELD Sophia (icon: ALDE ALDE)
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
RoP 136-p5

Events

2019/02/14
   EP - Motion for a resolution
Documents
2019/02/14
   EP - Results of vote in Parliament
2019/02/14
   EP - Decision by Parliament
Details

The European Parliament adopted a resolution tabled by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on the rights of intersex people. It pointed out that intersex individuals are born with physical sex characteristics that do not fit medical or social norms for female or male bodies, and these variations in sex characteristics may manifest themselves in primary characteristics (such as the inner and outer genitalia and the chromosomal and hormonal structure) and/or secondary characteristics (such as muscle mass, hair distribution and stature).

Parliament stated that intersex people are exposed to multiple instances of violence and discrimination in the European Union and these human rights violations remain widely unknown to the general public and policymakers. It called on the Commission and the Member States to propose legislation to address these issues.

Medicalisation and pathologisation

Parliament strongly condemned sex-normalising treatments and surgery, and welcomed laws that prohibit such surgery, as in Malta and Portugal, encouraging other Member States to adopt similar legislation as soon as possible.

Noting that many intersex children face human rights violations and genital mutilation in the EU when undergoing sex-normalising treatments, Members stressed the need to provide adequate counselling and support to intersex children and intersex individuals with disabilities, as well as to their parents or guardians, and fully inform them of the consequences of sex-normalising treatments.

They called on the Commission and the Member States, to:

- support organisations that work to break the stigma against intersex people;

- increase funding for intersex civil society organisations;

- improve access for intersex people to their medical records, and to ensure that no one is subjected to non-necessary medical or surgical treatment during infancy or childhood, guaranteeing bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination for the children concerned;

Parliament took the view that pathologisation of intersex variations jeopardises the full enjoyment by intersex people of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Whilst welcoming the depathologisation, however partial, of trans identities in the eleventh revision of the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), Parliament noted that the category of ‘gender incongruence’ in childhood pathologises non-gender-normative behaviours in childhood, and it called on Member States to pursue the removal of this category from the ICD-11, and to bring future ICD revision into line with their national health systems.

Identity documents

Stressing the importance of flexible birth registration procedures, the resolution welcomed the laws adopted in some Member States that allow legal gender recognition on the basis of self-determination, and encouraged other Member States to adopt similar legislation, including flexible procedures to change gender markers, as long as they continue to be registered, as well as names on birth certificates and identity documents (including the possibility of gender-neutral names).

Discrimination

Deploring the lack of recognition of sex characteristics as a ground of discrimination across the EU, Parliament called on Member States to adopt the necessary legislation to ensure the adequate protection, respect and promotion of the fundamental rights of intersex people, including intersex children, including full protection against discrimination.

Public awareness

Parliament called on the Commission to:

- make sure that EU funds do not support research or medical projects that further contribute to violating the human rights of intersex people, in the context of the European Reference Networks (ERNs);

- support and fund research on the human rights situation of intersex people;

- take a holistic and rights-based approach to the rights of intersex people and to better coordinate the work of its Directorates-General for Justice and Consumers, for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, and for Health and Food Safety, so as to ensure consistent policies and programmes supporting intersex people, including training of state officials and the medical profession;

- reinforce the intersex dimension in its multiannual LGBTI list of actions for the current period, and to begin preparing as of now a renewal of this strategy for the next multiannual period (2019-2024).

Documents
2019/02/14
   EP - End of procedure in Parliament
2019/02/12
   EP - Debate in Parliament
2019/02/11
   EP - Oral question/interpellation by Parliament
Documents
2019/02/11
   EP - Oral question/interpellation by Parliament
Documents
2018/10/18
   EP - MORAES Claude (S&D) appointed as rapporteur in LIBE

Documents

  • Motion for a resolution: B8-0101/2019
  • Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
  • Decision by Parliament: T8-0128/2019
  • Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
  • Oral question/interpellation by Parliament: B8-0007/2019
  • Oral question/interpellation by Parliament: B8-0008/2019
  • Oral question/interpellation by Parliament: B8-0007/2019
  • Oral question/interpellation by Parliament: B8-0008/2019
  • Motion for a resolution: B8-0101/2019

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)

committees/0/shadows/4
name
ERNST Cornelia
group
European United Left - Nordic Green Left
abbr
GUE/NGL
events/0/docs
  • url: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CRE-8-2019-02-12-TOC_EN.html title: Debate in Parliament
docs/2/docs/0/url
Old
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/B-8-2019-0101_EN.html
New
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/B-8-2019-0101_EN.html
events/0/docs
  • url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?secondRef=TOC&language=EN&reference=20190212&type=CRE title: Debate in Parliament
events/1
date
2019-02-14T00:00:00
type
Results of vote in Parliament
body
EP
docs
url: https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/sda.do?id=32247&l=en title: Results of vote in Parliament
events/1
date
2019-02-14T00:00:00
type
Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
body
EP
docs
url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2019-0128_EN.html title: T8-0128/2019
summary
events/2
date
2019-02-14T00:00:00
type
Decision by Parliament
body
EP
docs
url: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2019-0128_EN.html title: T8-0128/2019
summary
docs/2/docs/0/url
Old
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION&reference=B8-2019-0101&language=EN
New
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/B-8-2019-0101_EN.html
events/1/docs/0/url
Old
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P8-TA-2019-0128
New
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2019-0128_EN.html
committees/0
type
Responsible Committee
body
EP
committee_full
Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
committee
LIBE
associated
False
rapporteur
name: MORAES Claude date: 2018-10-18T00:00:00 group: Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats abbr: S&D
shadows
committees/0
type
Responsible Committee
body
EP
committee_full
Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
committee
LIBE
associated
False
date
2018-10-18T00:00:00
rapporteur
name: MORAES Claude group: Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats abbr: S&D
shadows
committees/0
type
Responsible Committee
body
EP
committee_full
Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
committee
LIBE
associated
False
date
2018-10-18T00:00:00
rapporteur
name: MORAES Claude group: Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats abbr: S&D
shadows
committees/0
type
Responsible Committee
body
EP
committee_full
Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
committee
LIBE
associated
False
date
2018-10-18T00:00:00
rapporteur
name: MORAES Claude group: Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats abbr: S&D
shadows
commission
  • body: EC dg: Migration and Home Affairs commissioner: AVRAMOPOULOS Dimitris
committees
  • type: Responsible Committee body: EP committee_full: Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee: LIBE associated: False date: 2018-10-18T00:00:00 rapporteur: name: MORAES Claude group: Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats abbr: S&D shadows: name: CORAZZA BILDT Anna Maria group: Group of European People's Party abbr: EPP name: VIOTTI Daniele group: Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats abbr: S&D name: STEVENS Helga group: European Conservatives and Reformists abbr: ECR name: IN 'T VELD Sophia group: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe abbr: ALDE name: ERNST Cornelia group: European United Left - Nordic Green Left abbr: GUE/NGL
docs
  • date: 2019-02-11T00:00:00 docs: title: B8-0007/2019 type: Oral question/interpellation by Parliament body: EP
  • date: 2019-02-11T00:00:00 docs: title: B8-0008/2019 type: Oral question/interpellation by Parliament body: EP
  • date: 2019-02-14T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION&reference=B8-2019-0101&language=EN title: B8-0101/2019 type: Motion for a resolution body: EP
events
  • date: 2019-02-12T00:00:00 type: Debate in Parliament body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?secondRef=TOC&language=EN&reference=20190212&type=CRE title: Debate in Parliament
  • date: 2019-02-14T00:00:00 type: Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P8-TA-2019-0128 title: T8-0128/2019 summary: The European Parliament adopted a resolution tabled by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on the rights of intersex people. It pointed out that intersex individuals are born with physical sex characteristics that do not fit medical or social norms for female or male bodies, and these variations in sex characteristics may manifest themselves in primary characteristics (such as the inner and outer genitalia and the chromosomal and hormonal structure) and/or secondary characteristics (such as muscle mass, hair distribution and stature). Parliament stated that intersex people are exposed to multiple instances of violence and discrimination in the European Union and these human rights violations remain widely unknown to the general public and policymakers. It called on the Commission and the Member States to propose legislation to address these issues. Medicalisation and pathologisation Parliament strongly condemned sex-normalising treatments and surgery, and welcomed laws that prohibit such surgery, as in Malta and Portugal, encouraging other Member States to adopt similar legislation as soon as possible. Noting that many intersex children face human rights violations and genital mutilation in the EU when undergoing sex-normalising treatments, Members stressed the need to provide adequate counselling and support to intersex children and intersex individuals with disabilities, as well as to their parents or guardians, and fully inform them of the consequences of sex-normalising treatments. They called on the Commission and the Member States, to: - support organisations that work to break the stigma against intersex people; - increase funding for intersex civil society organisations; - improve access for intersex people to their medical records, and to ensure that no one is subjected to non-necessary medical or surgical treatment during infancy or childhood, guaranteeing bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination for the children concerned; Parliament took the view that pathologisation of intersex variations jeopardises the full enjoyment by intersex people of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Whilst welcoming the depathologisation, however partial, of trans identities in the eleventh revision of the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), Parliament noted that the category of ‘gender incongruence’ in childhood pathologises non-gender-normative behaviours in childhood, and it called on Member States to pursue the removal of this category from the ICD-11, and to bring future ICD revision into line with their national health systems. Identity documents Stressing the importance of flexible birth registration procedures, the resolution welcomed the laws adopted in some Member States that allow legal gender recognition on the basis of self-determination, and encouraged other Member States to adopt similar legislation, including flexible procedures to change gender markers, as long as they continue to be registered, as well as names on birth certificates and identity documents (including the possibility of gender-neutral names). Discrimination Deploring the lack of recognition of sex characteristics as a ground of discrimination across the EU, Parliament called on Member States to adopt the necessary legislation to ensure the adequate protection, respect and promotion of the fundamental rights of intersex people, including intersex children, including full protection against discrimination. Public awareness Parliament called on the Commission to: - make sure that EU funds do not support research or medical projects that further contribute to violating the human rights of intersex people, in the context of the European Reference Networks (ERNs); - support and fund research on the human rights situation of intersex people; - take a holistic and rights-based approach to the rights of intersex people and to better coordinate the work of its Directorates-General for Justice and Consumers, for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, and for Health and Food Safety, so as to ensure consistent policies and programmes supporting intersex people, including training of state officials and the medical profession; - reinforce the intersex dimension in its multiannual LGBTI list of actions for the current period, and to begin preparing as of now a renewal of this strategy for the next multiannual period (2019-2024).
  • date: 2019-02-14T00:00:00 type: End of procedure in Parliament body: EP
procedure
reference
2018/2878(RSP)
title
Resolution on the rights of intersex people
subject
type
RSP - Resolutions on topical subjects
subtype
Debate or resolution on oral question/interpellation
legal_basis
Rules of Procedure EP 136-p5
stage_reached
Procedure completed
dossier_of_the_committee
LIBE/8/14782