Promoting the human rights of and eliminating discrimination against intersex people
Reply to Recommendation
| Doc. 14522
| 05 April 2018
- Author(s):
- Committee of Ministers
- Origin
- Adopted at the 1312th meeting
of the Ministers’ Deputies (4 April 2018). 2018 - Second part-session
- Reply to Recommendation
- : Recommendation 2116
(2017)
1. The Committee of Ministers has carefully
examined Parliamentary Assembly
Recommendation 2116 (2017) on “Promoting
the human rights of and eliminating discrimination against intersex
people”. It also communicated it to the Committee on Bioethics (DH-BIO),
as well as to the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH), for
possible comments.
2. The Committee of Ministers welcomes the interest of the Assembly
in strengthening children’s rights in biomedicine, and including
the rights of intersex children.
3. With regard to paragraph 3.1 of the recommendation, the Committee
of Ministers refers to
Resolution 2191
(2017) of the Assembly, and as requested, would invite
the governments of all member States to give it due consideration.
4. In paragraph 3.2 of its recommendation, the Assembly invites
the Committee of Ministers to “instruct the Committee on Bioethics
to continue its work on strengthening children’s rights in biomedicine,
in particular as regards the protection of intersex children’s right
to physical integrity and respect for the principle of free and informed
consent, with a view to drawing up Council of Europe standards and
guidelines in this field.”
5. The Assembly will be aware that the objective of the work
carried out by the DH-BIO is to protect human dignity and individual
rights in the field of biomedicine. Intersex children’s rights to
physical integrity and respect for the principle of free and informed
consent, as protected by the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine
(Oviedo Convention), form part of this objective.
6. The Committee of Ministers would inform the Assembly that
work has already been instigated through the organisation of a hearing
in June 2016 addressing, in particular, human rights issues for
intersex children. Those issues were further analysed in two studies
on children’s rights in biomedicine, commissioned within the framework
of the Strategy for the Rights of the Child, which specifically
refer to the situation of children with differences in sex development
and intersex conditions.
7. A Strategic Action Plan on human rights and technologies will
be developed by the DH-BIO with the objective to ensure, inter alia, that human rights of
particularly vulnerable groups are better protected. The Strategic
Action Plan will be based on the outcome of the Conference organised
on the occasion of the 20th anniversary
of the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention)
in October 2017, under the auspices of the Czech Chairmanship of
the Committee of Ministers, which dedicated a session to the evolution
of practices in the biomedical field in relation to autonomy, consent
and privacy. In the light of the work to be conducted by the DH-BIO,
the Committee of Ministers can in due course consider the appropriateness
of defining common European standards and providing guidance on
how best to protect the human rights of intersex children, taking
into account the different groups of persons involved (the child
itself, its parents, health professionals, social workers, etc.).
8. The Committee of Ministers encourages the DH-BIO to continue
its work in this field, in close co-operation with other relevant
Council of Europe bodies and institutions, bearing in mind the principles
of equality and non-discrimination as well as the right to physical
integrity.