Intersex Refugees & Asylum Seekers Toolkit
As an Intersex Nonbinary Asylee, I was glad to attend the event on the "Intersex Refugees & Asylum Seekers Toolkit Launch' organized by OII Europe this Spring 2024. It is a really nice and critical moment that Intersex organizations have finally started being interested in intersectionality issues like the refugee/asylum seekers, Intersex, and race issues. I hope this project is just the beginning and will provide more information on this problem in Europe, the USA, and other countries.
10 years ago, when I was forced to migrate from Russia and seek political asylum in the USA, I couldn't find support for my intersex asylum from any American Intersex organizations. Since that time, the situation has not changed really. Still, I cannot find any information (statistics, legal cases, debating) even for my dissertation about Intersex asylum seekers and refugees in the USA. It is depressing silence. I think this "Intersex Refugees & Asylum Seekers Toolkit' is a big achievement! Thank you for this incredible work.
Dr. Petra Sussner (who provided legal proofreading for "Intersex Refugees & Asylum Seekers Toolkit") noted a significant moment at the meeting: we need to understand that "LGBTQI" and "Intersex" are Western concepts. People from non-western countries cannot have knowledge about themselves as Intersex and they often use medical diagnoses for operating on different intersex issues. That's why the creators of the Intersex Refugee toolkit paid attention to different medical diagnoses connected with the definition of "Intersex."
Another issue is that there is a gap between the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention on the definition of "Refugee" and Yogyakarta Principles +10 toward "Intersex Refugees" and their belonging to a particular social group, LGBTQI. I myself was faced with a situation in getting my asylum when I had to choose between sexual orientation or gender identity and not mention sex characteristics. I insisted that my intersex status was mentioned as a part of my asylum.
At the end of the meeting, Jana Hugo and Luan Pertl, authors of the "Intersex Refugees & Asylum Seekers Toolkit," said that they are going to translate their toolkit into different languages and involvement of asylum seekers and refugees (especially the BIPOC) in the writing and proofreading process. Also, they plan to organize different workshops to educate Intersex organizations and Refugee Human rights organizations on the intersection of Intersex and Refugee.
You can find the toolkit on this website:
https://lnkd.in/gr28X9Mn