Abstract
Abstract Background This study explores how pervasive constructs regarding sex and gender in society and law limit the human rights of intersex persons. Societal culture promulgates a binary (male/female) gender ideal which includes standards of normality for our bodies. Problem description People who do not easily fit these culturally constructed norms, such as intersex persons, encounter numerous difficulties. The binary legal conceptualisation of ‘sex' maintains the medicalisation of variations of sex characteristics and reinforces the focus on sex ‘normalising' treatment of children who are too young to provide informed consent. Through ‘normalising' treatment, children are brought in conformity with the sex binary, upholding society's heteronormative expectations. While not all persons affected necessarily oppose ‘normalising' treatment, many report long-term physical, psychological and sexual trauma, and structural difficulties in accessing high quality healthcare. This presentation is based on legal doctrinal analysis and a literature study, and makes use of Belgium as an illustration. Not only is comprehensive legal research concerning variations of sex characteristics absent in Belgium, but the country has also been responsive to human rights claims regarding sexual identity in recent years, as demonstrated by a recent call in Parliament to legally prohibit non-consensual and deferrable treatment on a person's sex characteristics. Results and lessons With regards to the sex ‘normalising' treatment of intersex persons, this study concludes that by accepting the substitution of the child's informed consent for the opinion of the legal representative in the absence of urgent medical necessity, Belgian law has failed to protect the former's right to bodily integrity and best interests. With Parliament now moving towards a legal ban on non-consensual, deferrable ‘normalising' treatment, new challenges to ensure all human rights of intersex persons present themselves.
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