Intersex Activism, Medical Power/Knowledge and the Scalar Limitations of the United Nations

Bibliographic Data

ID5784694
AuthorsFae Garland (0000-0002-6725-7682, Centre for Social Justice), K Lalor (0000-0002-3265-7264, Centre for Social Justice), Martin Travis (0000-0001-6245-7354, Centre for Social Justice)
Year2022
Volume22
Issue3
Publication date2022-06-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Rights Law Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-7781 • E-ISSN: 1744-1021
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/hrlr/ngac020
OpenAlexW4285812997
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited1

This article considers the extent to which human rights mechanisms can ameliorate intersex rights at a sub-national, or medico-local, level. It engages with both intersex activism and the academy where the United Nations (UN) has become understood as a key mechanism through which to challenge day-to-day practices of healthcare practitioners and bring an end to nontherapeutic surgical and hormonal interventions on intersex infants and children. Using the UK as an example, this article examines how and why the UN's engagement with intersex has had little effect on the medical regulation of intersex people. To do so, the article draws on legal geography to examine how scale prevents the UN from having a clear and lasting impact on domestic issues - particularly those in healthcare settings. The different ways in which intersex bodies are recognised and regulated at different scales, coupled with the UN's inability to form dialogue with the institutions of the state, such as the healthcare profession, are problematic barriers to challenge practice at the medico-local scale

Sexual Differentiation and Disorders

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