Kitty Anderson
Kitty Anderson is an Intersex activist based in Iceland. In 2014, she was one of the founders of Intersex Iceland and has served as the organisations Chairperson since then. She has also served on the board of Samtökin 78 – The National Queer Organisation of Iceland, in 2015 as a board member and from 2016 as the Organisations International Secretariat. Since the fall of 2015, she has served as the Secretary of OII Europe and has had a place on the board of the Icelandic Human Rights Center since 2015, taking the position of the chairperson in May 2016. She has also served on Iceland’s Ministry of Welfares Queer Committee since 2014.
Abstract: In a world where we are taught to not speak about genitals it has been easy to hide the long term effects of breaches of bodily autonomy and physical integrity and ignore the fact that these issues fall squarely under the umbrella of human rights.
Within the Icelandic context awareness that Male Genital Mutilation and Female Genital Mutilation constitute human rights violations has rapidly been increasing, with FGM being covered by article 218 of the penal code and Icelandic doctors and the Icelandic Ombudsperson for children being party to the joint Nordic statement against circumcision from 2013. However, until recently Intersex Genital Mutilation has remained a very secretive affair. With 2-3 cases per year of IGM the work of Intersex Iceland has proved to be instrumental in creating a public discussion about everyone’s right to bodily autonomy. With these discussions repeatedly reaching the parliament floor within the last 18 months and members of parliament engaging with local activists to work towards legislative change it is likely that Iceland will soon see a future where no child faces these violations.
Dr Gaye Blake-Roberts
Chair, Psychological harms, sexual dysfunction and pathways to treatment.
Gaye Blake-Roberts has an honorary doctorate from Keele University and was selected to be their inaugural President of the College of Fellows. The Fellows work as advocates for the University on a regional, national and international level.
Gaye is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Museums Association. She is currently a Trustee to the Spode Museum, Chairman of the Raven Mason Trust at Keele University, and Deputy Chair of the Trustees and Chair of the Academic and Curatorial Committee of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Shropshire. For many years Gaye has been Curator of the Wedgwood Museum at Barlas¬ton. The new Wedgwood Museum reopened to the public, in October 2008 and won the prestigious Museum of the Year Award in June 2009.
Gaye has lectured extensively throughout Britain and has undertaken a number of tours in Australia, Japan, Italy and the United States of America. She has appeared on national and local radio and television and has contributed to numer¬ous catalogues for major exhibitions and for a wide range of scholarly publications in England, Europe and America. Published books include Mason’s the First 200 years, Wedgwood Jasper (2011) and Wedgwood – The Illustrated History of an Iconic Name in Pottery (2014).
Dr Clare Chambers
Clare Chambers is University Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. She works on contemporary political philosophy, with particular focus on feminism, liberalism, and theories of social construction. She is the author of numerous chapters and articles on topics such as autonomy, choice, and consent; the body, appearance norms, and cosmetic surgery; culture, religion, and social practices; theories of justice. She is the author of two books: Sex, Culture, and Justice: The Limits of Choice (Penn State University Press, 2008) and, with Phil Parvin, Teach Yourself Political Philosophy: A Complete Introduction (Hodder, 2012). Her third book, Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of the Marriage-Free State, will be published by Oxford University Press in early 2017.
Abstract: There is a general consensus in liberal theory, practice, and law that female genital mutilation (FGM) is a violation of rights and justice that should be banned. However, there is no such consensus about male circumcision or cosmetic surgery, including cosmetic genital surgery. These practices are legal in most liberal states and there is no general critique of them in mainstream liberal theory. This talk will consider and challenge the philosophical reasons in favour of distinguishing FGM from male circumcision and labiaplasty. There is no clear distinction between “cultural” genital surgery and “cosmetic” genital surgery, so that male circumcision and cosmetic surgery should be regulated in the same way as FGM.
James Chegwidden
James Chegwidden is a barrister at Old Square Chambers, London. Old Square is a Band-1 ranked chambers in the fields of employment/equality law, and is highly rated in the fields of clinical negligence and personal injury. James frequently acts for governmental agencies, including the Secretary of State for Health, the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and also for private individuals. In 2010, James worked as a lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg, and prior to call to the Bar was Associate to Mr Justice Michael Kirby of the High Court of Australia. He was appointed Attorney General’s Counsel to the Crown in 2013. On issues of genital cutting, James was one of the most cited-participants in the State of Tasmania’s consultation on non-therapeutic circumcision of boys (2009); he acted as legal advisor to a delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Committee on the subject of genital cutting (2013); and most recently in 2015, James was junior counsel for the mother in the recent High Court (England and Wales) case of Re L & B on infant circumcision.
Abstract: Two English High Court cases over the past two years – Re B & G [2014] and Re L and B [2016] – have specifically dealt with the issue of the genital cutting of boys. Additionally, four successful prosecutions of harmful amateur circumcisions have taken place in the Crown Court, exposing the unacceptable reality of many contemporary cutting practices to public gaze. The judgments prove that, slowly, progress is being made towards safeguarding all children from genital cutting. But they also reveal how far legal thinking on genital cutting still remains divorced from modern legal frameworks on child protection and human rights. Current legal approaches to FGM further undermine the logic – and the defensibility – of legal permissiveness towards the equivalent cutting of boys. Where has the English court’s approach improved? Where is it flawed? And what can supporters of autonomy and human rights do now to help the law develop?
John Dalton
John Dalton is the lead researcher and archivist for Genital Autonomy and 15 Square. He was born and lives in Cumbria and was educated at Dundee and St Andrews Universities. He is a semi-retired nuclear safety consultant and a lay member of an NHS research ethics committee. He has a long standing interest in the subject of genital cutting and has amassed an archive of over 6000 documents related to the issue.
Abstract: Child genital cutting practices are invasive, painful and bring permanent alterations to the body. The potential exists for such practices to bring psychological trauma and damage. They may cause feelings of grief and loss.
Having a traumatic experience during childhood, a history of sexual or physical abuse, or a history of parental neglect is a known precursor to suicide and during our work at 15Square and Genital Autonomy several anecdotal cases of suicide have come to our attention.
This presentation reviews the anedotal cases known to the author, the literature on traumatic aspects of genital cutting and the literature on suicide and looks at potential connections.
Richard Duncker
Chair, Politics and Activism.
Richard Duncker was born in Jamaica, educated in the UK attaining a degree in Fine Art, and has spent most of his working life in editing documentaries and current affairs programmes for TV in the UK. In recent years, he has worked as a snowboard instructor and Yoga teacher, specialising in classes for older people.
In 2004, Richard came across the NORM-UK web site and realised that his negative feelings regarding genital cutting were in fact a normal reaction to a very definite insult. As a victim turned activist, he has used his knowledge of the media to try and raise the profile of an assault on children that should not be tolerated by a society that purports to respect children’s rights.
Prof Marie Fox
Marie Fox is Professor of Law, in the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool. Her research focuses on legal governance of human and animal bodies and legal theories of embodiment. She is currently working on projects which explore the policing of the human/non-human boundary and the role of technologies in mediating this relation and (with Michael Thomson) examining the ethics and legality of genital cutting. She is a co-ordinating editor of Social and Legal Studies.
Abstract: Bodily Integrity, Embodiment and the Regulation of Parental Choice.
This paper seeks to engage critically with the concept of bodily integrity. Bodily integrity is a key underpinning principle of many areas of legal doctrine; and Margot Brazier has suggested that it may constitute the core legal value underpinning contemporary health law. In this paper I seek to examine how bodily integrity discourse has been mobilised in legal contexts involving the cutting of children. I argue – based on an ongoing project with Michael Thomson – that conventional legal understandings of bodily integrity need to be supplemented by a richer and more nuanced conception that we label ‘embodied integrity’. In this paper I focus on law’s differential responses to different forms of genital cutting to think about how our vision of embodied integrity might be mobilised in these debates.
Dr Fae Garland
Fae Garland is a lecturer of law at the University of Manchester. She has been published in Edinburgh Law Review, New Zealand Law Review, and The Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law. She and Mitchell Travis were awarded funding from the Socio-Legal Studies Association’s Small Grant Scheme. The grant enabled interviews to take place with a number of Intersex Organisations from around the world. Participants were asked to reflect on their experiences of law, and the future directions that it could take.
Abstract: State Responses to Intersex Embodiment; Challenges and Opportunities. Whilst there have been a number of qualitative studies examining the experiences of intersex embodied persons in relation to medicine, this study is the first to examine the practical impact that law has had on the lives and experiences of intersex embodied people. The study also allowed for consideration of the future directions that law could or should take and, as a result, seeks to place the voices of the intersex community at the heart of any recommendations for legislative reform. Over the last 20 years, there has been an increase in legal recognition of intersex throughout the West. This trend indicates a global shift from the historic medical management of intersex bodies towards a more juridical response. The underlying aim behind these reforms has been consistent, seeking to increase the resilience of intersex embodied people. However, there are a range of legal approaches and differing frameworks that have each offered alternate legal constructions of intersex thereby shaping the material experiences and political possibilities open to these individuals. At present, the majority of western states do not recognise intersex at all and continue to rely on a medical account that traditionally uses surgical intervention to force intersex bodies into the sex binary, rendering individuals invisible at the institutional and discursive levels. In contrast, some legal systems such as Germany and Australia have introduced provisions that focus on status and identity using, for example, third gender markers on official documents and anti-discrimination law in an attempt to level the social playing field. Comparatively, other states, such as Malta, have adopted a more holistic approach to legal reform that concentrates on protecting the bodily integrity of intersex children by prohibiting unnecessary surgeries. This study therefore comes at an important juncture in this jurisdictional shift. While the legal trend towards recognising intersex embodied people is still in its infancy, this movement is gaining significant momentum and a growing number of states are debating the possibility of reform. Such discussions inevitably draw upon the experiences of other legal systems. However, these legal frameworks have yet to be critically evaluated in the academic literature and consequently it is unclear how far, if at all, these different approaches have actually responded to the needs and claims of the intersex community. Enacting the changes recommended by the intersex community would involve a radical upheaval of jurisdiction, the public/private divide, state competence and medical power/knowledge but are central to the requirements of the persons who were interviewed. By considering the material experiences of intersex embodied people new political possibilities can be imagined which necessitate a redistribution of jurisdictional competence and state responsibility.
Margaret Green
Margaret Green is a founder Trustee and the Honorary Treasurer of Genital Autonomy. Following a music degree, she had a long career as a librarian and manager which culminated in the post of Assistant Director: Libraries, Information & Archives in Stoke-on-Trent and a PhD in Management Studies. On taking early retirement some years ago, she re-trained in speech-reading, audiology and developmental psychology and began work as a College Lecturer in Lip-reading Skills and Deaf Awareness. For the last 6 years she has worked exclusively in the charity sector in a variety of roles. She has been organising conferences, workshops and the Symposia since 2008 in tandem with the International Committee. Margaret is hoping that further research might be undertaken on the human rights issues highlighted by GA, on the psychological damage suffered by survivors and how we might influence and train psychologists to put in place some counselling or treatment to help.
Holly Greenberry
Holly Greenberry Holly Greenberry, MSc. Intersexuk: Co Founder & Consultant, London, United Kingdom.
My focus is to develop the growth of IntersexUK as a charity, focusing on Intersex education & consultancy. To support UK cross party development; & to continue unifying on International policy. Educate for bodily autonomy, peer support, & equality for Intersex bodied children & others. Bridge building is essential to ensure appropriate education & parliamentary, cross party development. Terms such as abuse & torture are synonymous with ‘treatments’ performed on Intersex bodied children; as recognised by 12 UN agencies, & certain countries. The work of IntersexUK is cross cultural / religious / political / geographical.
Stopping Irreversible aesthetically normalising non essential medical treatments is essential.
“scalpels do not sculpt gender, they sever futures”
Full human & civil rights equality is mandatory & globally sort – The International Statement of Demands. Intersex bodied children & their families need the correct guidance & full peer support.
Dr Eli Joubert
Dr H Eli Joubert Chartered Clinical Psychologist, Teaching Fellow (Clinical), University of Surrey. Dr H Eli Joubert completed his clinical training following a career in media where he produced radio and television in his native South Africa mainly focusing on HIV/Aids education with some of his work mentioned in a report to the United Nations. His first clinical post was in an NHS Sexual Health setting working with men who have male sexual partners before taking on posts in forensic settings, mainly working with sex offenders, both in South Africa and the UK. In 2010 he was appointed a Senior Clinical Psychologist at the Maudsley Hospital Psychosexual service. In this post he developed placements for trainee clinical psychologists and offered seminars and workshops to trainees from both Kings College and Oxford University as well as qualified psychologists and other mental health professionals. It was whilst working in this post that he gained a professional qualification as EFS/ESSM Certified Psycho-Sexologist in addition to being a Chartered Clinical Psychologist. He also holds several other professional registrations. Associate Fellow and Registered Supervisor of the British Psychological Society Practitioner Psychologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council of the UK Full Member of the College of Sex and Relationship Therapists, Member of both the British (BSSM) and European Societies of Sexual Medicine (ESSM) List of specialists in Gender Dysphoria, UK Ministry of Justice – Gender Recognition Panel. In May 2015 he was appointed as Teaching Fellow (Clinical) at the University of Surrey where he now teaches doctoral trainee clinical psychologists. He has been in private practice, based at London Bridge, since 2012 and continues to do so. Clinically, he works with all psycho-sexual presentations and has a particular interest in gender dysphoria (including medico-legal consultations and reports), paraphillic disorders and adjustment disorder following physical changes to the sexual body, such as circumcision, radical prostatectomy and mastectomy as treatment for cancer and Peyronie’s disease. His research interests include ChemSex, premature ejaculation and sexual consent.
Abstract: Considering the Psycho-Sexual impact of Circumcision. Sexual pleasure is derived not only from physical sensation but also from the psychological processes and experiences during a sexual encounter. The role of a partner(s) during sex is important to facilitate some of these psychological processes (Fonagy, 2008) and might help us understand the difference in quality of experiences between masturbation and sex with a partner(s) and why either might be preferred. Such consideration might also be helpful in understanding the possible difficulties in establishing and/or maintaining sexual attachments. Physical trauma of any kind is likely to have a psychological impact. Circumcision during infancy, childhood or as part of obliged cultural tradition, is more likely to be experienced by a man as traumatic compared to adult males with capacity who’ve consented to elective circumcision. Traumatic circumcision might either highlight previous psychological difficulties or might cause such difficulties which might then contribute to sexual dysfunction. The meaning ascribed to being circumcised when one didn’t or was not able to consent to it, is likely to be of importance for those circumcised men who experience sexual difficulties. The meaning an individual man makes about being circumcised would, at least in part, be informed by larger psychological systems. The experience of being circumcised has to be considered also within larger contextual factors. Understanding such meaning is likely to be useful in addressing sexual dysfunction for circumcised men.
Dr Jackie Kilding
As a member of the community paediatric team Dr Jackie Kilding, Associate Specialist, assess and manages children with developmental delay and neuro-developmental conditions. She works closely with schools, school nurses, health visitors and therapists. The team provides 24 hour cover for child protection and advice to the local authority on safeguarding and looked after children matters. Dr Kilding is also the named doctor for child protection for University Hospital of North Midlands, providing support and advice to colleagues and working with the Local Safeguarding Children Boards through their subcommittees.
Tuomas Kurttilla
Tuomas Kurttila is the Ombudsman for Children in Finland. Kurttila holds a Master’s Degree in Administrative Sciences and Theology. Tuomas Kurttila, who was born in 1978, has earlier worked at the Ministry of Education as the General Secretary of the Finland’s Advisory Council for Youth Affairs and before starting in his current position as the Executive Director of Finnish Parents’ League. He is a long-time member of the Advisory Council for Children’s Affairs, which supports the Ombudsman for Children in his or her work.The Ombudsman for Children Tuomas Kurttila has proposed a legislation which forbids the circumcision of boys for non-medical reasons. The Ombudsman has proposed the initiative to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Currently, the circumcision of underage boys is regulated by a ministerial guideline but not by legislation.
According to Kurttila, ministerial guidelines are not sufficient regulatory means since parents are not obliged to ask the children their opinion about circumcision in the current guidelines: the guidelines do not require the explicit consent of the child regarding the measure even though the child is unable to understand the significance of circumcision. According to Kurttila, every child’s right to physical integrity in the country has to be safeguarded. The Ombudsman for Children in Finland reports annually to the government on the welfare of children and youth and the implementation of their rights. The annual report covers the activities of the Ombudsman, the implementation of children’s rights, the development of child welfare and shortcomings in legislation.
Dr Antony Lempert
Antony is a GP partner in a rural Welsh border practice in Powys, Wales. He has also coordinated and chaired the UK Secular Medical Forum (SMF) since 2008. The SMF campaigns to protect patients from the imposition on them of other people’s personal beliefs in many areas of medicine including forced genital cutting.
In 2012, Antony was invited to Geneva where he met with the chair and deputy chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to discuss ritual male circumcision. He has spoken in Brussels at the European Parliament Platform for Secularism in Politics about women’s sexual health rights, has acted as an expert witness in a High Court right to die case and has participated in regular debates including on radio and television.
Antony was the GP member of the Powys Local Safeguarding Children’s Board until it reconfigured in 2014. Since 2009, he has attended and spoken regularly at the BMA’s Annual Representatives Meeting, and was elected chair of the Shropshire division of the BMA in January 2016.
Abstract: Drummed into every medical student is the fact that any treatment, however effective, may also cause iatrogenic harm. Starting from this premise together with the primary medical ethic of patient autonomy, Antony explores some of the initiatives he has been involved in with regard to forced genital cutting. He discusses his work in engaging UK and international medical and professional bodies, patterns of resistance and useful strategies.
Brendon Marotta
Brendon Marotta is an award-winning filmmaker from Austin, TX, and a graduate of the University of the North Carolina School of the Arts Film School. The last feature he edited premiered at the Austin Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. For the latest on his current project American Circumcision, visit CircumcisionMovie.com.
Paul Mason
Paul Mason is the current and foundation Chair of Australasian Institute for Genital Autonomy (AIGA). He is a family law barrister with over 3 decades experience and a member of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. From 2007-2010 he was the Commissioner for Children for the Australian State of Tasmania. In 2008 with Dr Comfort Momoh of FGM support service FORWARD he became inaugural joint Patron of UK-based global charity Genital Autonomy. Since then he has presented local and international papers on the law and universal human Right of Genital Autonomy of girls, boys and intersex children. Paul lives in Brisbane, Queensland.
“Update from Down Under”. Paul will report to the Symposium on GA activities in the Antipodes since 2014 and the continued development of AIGA. His talk will also examine the most promising future directions in the cultural context of Australia and New Zealand.
Comfort Momoh
Comfort MomohDr Comfort Momoh, MBE, BSc, MSc. Fellow of Royal College of Midwives (FRCM). FGM Consultant/Public Health Specialist with extensive experience of holistic women centred care. A researcher of women’s health and a strong campaigner/supporter against Domestic Violence and for the eradication of FGM. She established and runs the African Well Woman’s Clinic at Guy’s and St Thomas Foundation Trust in 1997. She holds a Masters degree – King’s College London (University of London) in Women’s Health and Health Promotion.
Comfort acted as an expert witness for the All Party Parliamentary Hearing on Female Genital Mutilation for England and Wales in 2000 and for Scotland in 2005. Representing the World Health Organisation in the next World Congress of Gynaecology and Obstetrics in October 2009 in South Africa (XIX FIGO). She received award from the Queen Elizabeth II as a Member of British Empire (MBE) in 2008 for services for women’s Health and Honorary Doctorate Degree same year from Middlesex University. Comfort provides training and conferences at local, national and international levels. She was invited by Australian Health Minister to present on FGM in Canberra in April 2013 at their FGM Summit.
A product of King’s College London and a visiting lecturer at same University as well as at the London Tropical School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Middlesex University. In November 2013 Comfort was awarded a scholarship by The Florence Nightingale Foundation Trust in the UK to undertake a research Study in America. She was also included in the 2013 Health Service Journal BME Pioneers list that celebrates the influential leaders working within health care in England. Recognising and celebrating 100 outstanding Nigerians in the UK in the last 100 years. She was recognised by HSJ on 9th July 2014 as one of fifty Inspirational Women in Healthcare. Comfort was included in The 1000 most influential Londoners 2014 and 2015. London Evening Standard. In February 2016, she was awarded 2nd prize by British Journal of Midwifery.
Maryam Namazie
Maryam Namazie is a political activist. She is the Spokesperson for Fitnah – Movement for Women’s Liberation, Equal Rights Now, One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. She hosts a weekly television programme in Persian and English called Bread and Roses broadcast in Iran and the Middle East via New Channel TV.
She is on the International Advisory Board of the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom; Humanist Laureate at the International Academy of Humanism, Central Committee member of the Worker-communist Party of Iran; National Secular Society Honorary Associate; Honorary Associate of Rationalist International; Emeritus Member of the Secular Humanist League of Brazil; a Patron of London Black Atheists and Pink Triangle Trust and a member of the International Advisory Board of Feminist Dissent.
Abstract: I will be talking about religion/culture versus children’s rights and autonomy and how via activism we must change the way children are viewed as the property of parents/religions and how their parent’s religion is imputed on them – and how we need to see child veiling, child marriage, child mutilation and so on as forms of child abuse and not the religious rights of parents.
The Islamic regime of Iran’s media outlets has called Namazie immoral and corrupt and did an ‘exposé’ on her entitled ‘Meet this anti-religion woman‘.
Maryam was a character in DV8 Physical Theatre’s Can We Talk About This?, which deals with freedom of speech, censorship and Islam.
She was honoured by the National Secular Society for her campaigning work defending free speech at universities (2016); awarded Atheist of the Year by Kazimierz Lyszczynski (2014); Journalist of the Year at the Dods Women in Public Life Awards (2013); selected one of the top 45 women of the year by Elle magazine Quebec (2007); one of 2006’s most intriguing people by DNA, awarded the National Secular Society’s Secularist of the Year Award (2005); selected ‘Iranian of the Year’ by Iranian.com readers (1997 and 1998); International Rescue Committee medal recipient (1988); and received the Julia B. Friedman Humanitarian Award (1987).
In the past few years, she has initiated a Day to Stand with Bangladesh’s Bloggers and Activists; an International Day to Defend Amina and the Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar 2012-2013, founded Iran Solidarity, and helped launch the Manifesto for a Free and Secular Middle East and North Africa.
She has spoken and written numerous articles on women’s rights issues, free expression, Islamism, and secularism. She has co-authored Sharia Law in Britain: A Threat to One Law for All and Equal Rights (One Law for All, June 2010), Enemies Not Allies: The Far-Right (One Law for All, August 2011), and The Political and Legal Status of Apostates in Islam (CEMB, December 2013). She also has an essay entitled ‘When the Hezbollah came to my School’ in 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists (Wiley-Blackwell, October 2009) and is featured in A Better Life: A Hundred Atheists Speak out on Joy and Meaning in a World Without God (2013) amongst others.
Previously, Namazie produced a weekly TV International programme broadcast in the Middle East; was the elected Executive Director of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees, a refugee run organisation with 60 branches in 15 countries worldwide for 8 years; founded the Committee for Humanitarian Assistance to Iranian Refugees; was the Human Rights Advocates Training Programme Coordinator at Columbia University’s Centre for the Study of Human Rights in New York and the NYC Refugee Coordinator/ US National Steering Committee Member of Amnesty International. She was Co-founder of Human Rights Without Frontiers based in the Sudan, Co-founder and President of the US-based Refugee Women’s Network and ran a refugee women’s leadership training programme in NYC.
Below is the introduction of Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, of Maryam Namazie during the Secularist of the Year award ceremony in October 2005:
Maryam Namazie was born in Tehran, but she left Iran with her family in 1980 after the establishment of the Islamic Republic. She then lived in India, the UK and then settled in the US where she began her university studies at the age of 17.
After graduating, Maryam went to the Sudan in to work with Ethiopian refugees. Half way through her stay, an Islamic government took power. She was threatened by the government for establishing a clandestine human rights organisation and had to be evacuated by her employer for her own safety.
Back in the United States, Maryam worked for various refugee and human rights organisations. She established the Committee for Humanitarian Assistance to Iranian Refugees in 1991. In 1994, she went to Turkey and produced a video documentary on the situation of Iranian refugees there.
Soon after her return to the US, she was elected executive director of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees, an international organisation with 60 branches in nearly 20 countries. As director of the refugee-run organisation, she campaigned on behalf of thousands of Iranian asylum seekers and refugees having intervened successfully on many cases preventing. Some successes include preventing the deportation of over 1000 from Holland including having spoken at a parliamentary meeting on the issue; to a successful campaign against the Turkish government to extend the period in which asylum seekers can apply for asylum.
Maryam Namazie has also worked on numerous campaigns, including against stoning, executions, sexual apartheid, and women’s rights violations particularly in Islamic societies. Some successes include the campaign against the Sharia court in Canada. She was a speaker at its first public meeting in Toronto and continued supporting and highlighting the issue and mobilising support.
Other campaigns she has worked on include preventing stonings and executions in Islamist societies, opposing the veiling of children, opposing Sharia or religious laws, defending the banning of religious symbols from schools and public institutions, opposing the incitement to religious hatred bill in the UK and calling for secularism and the de-religionisation of society not only in Iran but in Britain and elsewhere.
Maryam is an inveterate commentator and broadcaster on rights, cultural relativism, secularism, religion, political Islam and many other related topics.
The present revival of Islam has heightened interest in Maryam’s work, and at last her writings are gaining a mainstream audience. She has spoken at numerous conferences and written extensively on women’s rights issues, particularly violence against women.
More recently, Maryam has been hosting a weekly programme on International TV. This is broadcast via satellite to the Middle East and Europe and can be seen on the Internet. TV International focuses on issues pertaining to the Middle East from a progressive, left-wing perspective. The programme promotes secularism amongst other values and has developed a considerable following amongst people in Iran and the Middle East as well as in Europe and the west.
The issues raised in the programme provoke much correspondence, and she has been roundly criticised by Islamists, the Islamic Republic of Iran and even of Ken Livingstone after his invitation to this country of Yusuf Al Qaradawi.
So she must be doing something right.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are sure you will agree with us that Maryam Namazie is a worthy and noble winner of this first Irwin Prize.
Dr Tommi Paalanen
Dr Tommi Paalanen (MA, DSocSci) is a Finnish Philosopher and Ethicist, whose major interests are philosophical sexual ethics, professional ethics, philosophy of law, human & sexual rights and sexual politics. He works as the Executive Director in the Sexpo Foundation, which specialises in training sexologists, providing counselling and therapy and engaging in sexual politics in order to advance sexual wellbeing.
Abstract: Professional ethics in health care and medical profession build strongly on the maxim of ”do not harm”. In this lecture the concept of harm will be analysed thoroughly, and consequently the results of the analysis will be applied to ethical guidelines on health care, medicine and helping professions. To define harm, it is crucial to take a look into concepts of interests, wrongness and consent, which construct the field of ethical enquiry.
Professional ethics are not only about avoiding harming, but also about fulfilling the intrinsic aims of the practice. In health care, medicine and helping professions there one of the essential aims is to improve quality of life and solve problems and conditions that hamper reaching the best possible state of health and wellbeing. Thus to achieve high level of professionality and virtue in practice, these ethical conditions must be fulfilled at the best of one’s ability.
When a professional meets clients suffering from conditions caused by genital mutilation the same ethical standards apply without any mitigation on account of professional, cultural or religious considerations. The intrinsic aim of the practice always comes first even if there might be some cultural, political religious or professional debates that create pressure to adopt a different stance on the matter.
Glen Poole
Glen is a writer, campaigner and practitioner whose work focuses on a broad range of issues. He is has written and spoken about the issue of male circumcision in the UK for several years, notably in the Daily Telegraph and on BBC Men’s Hour. Glen relocated to Australia in 2015 and founded the Stop Male Suicide project, an initiative that aims to enhance our capacity to prevent male suicide by improving levels of male suicide literacy at an individual, cultural and systemic level. As an international speaker, Glen has previously presented at a broad range of conferences including the National Male Psychology Conference in the UK; TEDx LSE in London; the Gulf Comparative Education Society Conference in Dubai; the National Boys Education Conference in Sydney; the National Men’s Health Gatherings in Brisbane and Central Coast and the National Suicide Prevention Conference in Canberra.
Abstract: Understanding the pathways to male suicide. There are many different theories and models that attempt to explain why people take their own lives. The Integral Model of Male Suicide, developed by the Stop Male Suicide project, integrates these theories into a single model that makes this complex issue easier to understand. This talk uses the Integral Model of Male Suicide to consider why circumcision may increase some men’s risk of suicide. Crucially, it also highlights some of the warning signs that men at risk of suicide may display and discusses some actions we can take to prevent male suicide.
Porterbrook Clinic
Porterbrook Clinic
Rebecca Roberts
Rebecca Roberts MCIM Deputy Director (Marketing & Recruitment) at Keele University. Passionate about developing effective marketing and communications strategies, integrating engaging content and bringing teams together.
Enjoy exploring new platforms, ways of doing things and making sure ideas transform into imaginative, impactful and exciting work.
Experienced in high performance sport, working across media, marketing and PR, more recently moving into Higher Education. Believe in bringing the best out of the toughest challenges, people and hopefully myself.
Lloyd Schofield
Lloyd Schofield was a proponent for the San Francisco Male Genital Mutilation Initiative, which received nearly double the amount of signatures required for the 2012 ballot in the City and County of San Francisco. The initiative was removed from the ballot on a technicality as the result of a concerted lobbying effort conducted by the Jewish Community Relations Council and the American Civil Liberties Union. He is the current President of the Bay Area Intactivists, a grassroots 501(c)(3) charitable organisation, which works to protect and defend the genital autonomy of all individuals, male, female, and intersex, from forced genital mutilation through education, expanding visibility, creating forums, and working with other human rights organisations.
Abstract: Remembering Jonathon – A tribute to Jonathon Conte a human genital mutilation survivor and Intactivist hero. This presentation will highlight in Jonathon’s own words and reflect on Jonathan’s life and his impact.
David Smith
David Smith is the Chief Officer of Genital Autonomy. He qualified in business studies and worked for a number of international companies before joining the charity sector in 2002. David was one of the founders of Genital Autonomy in 2008. As well as working for Genital Autonomy he is also the General Manager of 15 Square, a charity helping men who have been damaged by circumcision, and previously worked for Re-Solv, a charity dealing with problems caused by solvent abuse. He is a lay representative at the Keele University School of Medicine.
Dr Rebecca Steinfeld
Dr Steinfeld is a political scientist researching the politics ofreproduction and genital alteration. A Visiting Research Fellow at theCentre of the Body at Goldsmiths, University of London, she is writing her first book, entitled Wars of the Wombs: Struggles over Reproduction in Israel, for publication with Stanford University Press. Rebecca has written and broadcast widely on male circumcision, including in The Guardian, Haaretz and on BBC Radio 3. Most recently, she has been working with the bioethicist Brian Earp at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, where they have been critiquing the contrasting global policies towards female and male genital alteration. Rebecca is also a co-founder, together with her partner, Charles Keidan, of the Campaign for Equal Civil Partnerships in the UK, as well as co-litigants in a Judicial Review challenge to the Government’s ban on different-sex couples’ access to civil partnerships. These experiences have given her insights into the power and problems of using litigation to generate political change.
Abstract: Global and Western states’ policies toward genital alteration tend to focus on eliminating female genital mutilation, or FGM, while tolerating or even encouraging male circumcision. On the surface, this seems unproblematic: Within global health and human rights circles, FGM is almost universally regarded as bad and barbaric – as a savage and severely harmful manifestation of the patriarchal drive to control female sexuality – whereas male circumcision is seen as benign or even beneficial. Yet mounting empirical evidence and ethical critique calls into question these contrasting perceptions, and, in turn, the divergent policies they underpin. In this paper, I argue that maintaining policies premised on sex-based distinctions seems unsustainable, as well as incompatible with gender equality. Instead, I suggest that meaningful age-based distinctions between those unable (children) and able (adults) to give informed consent could constitute more empirical, ethical and effective policies. I evaluate the merits and demerits of both permissive and restrictive approaches to female and male genital alteration, and assess the advantages and disadvantages of some specific alternative policies.
Prof Michael Thomson
Michael Thomson is a Professor of Law at the University of Leeds. He is a health lawyer with particular interests in children’s rights, the regulation of reproduction and the medical profession, and theories and practices of embodiment. He is the author of a number of books on the body and gender as well as numerous articles that explore the shaping of children’s bodies and when and how we should limit parental choices and actions. He is the Chair of Genital Autonomy. Leeds, UK.
Abstract: ‘Legal developments and strategies for change’
Recent years have seen a number of popular and legal responses to the genital cutting of male, female and intersex children. In the case of children born intersex, international developments have seen positive and concrete interventions which are likely to protect bodily integrity and genital autonomy. In the UK the story is quite different. The UK is yet to make similar moves to protect intersex children, and whilst in the case of male and female genital cutting there have been high profile interventions and moments of promise in the courts, we approach the end of 2016 with little real change. This presentation provides an overview of recent legal responses and considers how these might be built upon to affect positive change.
Dr Mitchell Travis
Dr Mitchell Travis is a lecturer in the Centre for Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds. Along with other members of the Centre and Intersex UK he recently co-authored a response to the Women and Equalities Committee inquiry into Transgender Equality. He has been published in the European law Journal and Medical Law Review.
Abstract: State Responses to Intersex Embodiment; Challenges and Opportunities. Whilst there have been a number of qualitative studies examining the experiences of intersex embodied persons in relation to medicine, this study is the first to examine the practical impact that law has had on the lives and experiences of intersex embodied people. The study also allowed for consideration of the future directions that law could or should take and, as a result, seeks to place the voices of the intersex community at the heart of any recommendations for legislative reform. Over the last 20 years, there has been an increase in legal recognition of intersex throughout the West. This trend indicates a global shift from the historic medical management of intersex bodies towards a more juridical response. The underlying aim behind these reforms has been consistent, seeking to increase the resilience of intersex embodied people. However, there are a range of legal approaches and differing frameworks that have each offered alternate legal constructions of intersex thereby shaping the material experiences and political possibilities open to these individuals. At present, the majority of western states do not recognise intersex at all and continue to rely on a medical account that traditionally uses surgical intervention to force intersex bodies into the sex binary, rendering individuals invisible at the institutional and discursive levels. In contrast, some legal systems such as Germany and Australia have introduced provisions that focus on status and identity using, for example, third gender markers on official documents and anti-discrimination law in an attempt to level the social playing field. Comparatively, other states, such as Malta, have adopted a more holistic approach to legal reform that concentrates on protecting the bodily integrity of intersex children by prohibiting unnecessary surgeries. This study therefore comes at an important juncture in this jurisdictional shift. While the legal trend towards recognising intersex embodied people is still in its infancy, this movement is gaining significant momentum and a growing number of states are debating the possibility of reform. Such discussions inevitably draw upon the experiences of other legal systems. However, these legal frameworks have yet to be critically evaluated in the academic literature and consequently it is unclear how far, if at all, these different approaches have actually responded to the needs and claims of the intersex community. Enacting the changes recommended by the intersex community would involve a radical upheaval of jurisdiction, the public/private divide, state competence and medical power/knowledge but are central to the requirements of the persons who were interviewed. By considering the material experiences of intersex embodied people new political possibilities can be imagined which necessitate a redistribution of jurisdictional competence and state responsibility.
Tiina Vilponen
Tiina Vilponen, Sexuality Therapist, Communications Manager, Sexpo Foundation, Finland.
Abstract: In my presentation I will explore ways of promoting genital autonomy and introduce the most relevant declarations, resolutions, statements and conventions that protect – or should protect – genital autonomy for all. I will continue by outlining the harm that genital mutilation causes and reflect on how to support and strengthen the sexual well-being of those whose rights have been violated.
Dr Ann-Marie Wilson
Dr Ann-Marie Wilson Founder / Executive Director of 28 Too Many. A psychologist and training consultant with 30 years’ experience, Ann-Marie has a background in corporate life and her own not-for-profit consultancy firm specialising in charity projects. Since 2004, Ann-Marie has worked in full-time aid work, holding positions for eight overseas relief, rehabilitation or development agencies in 18 countries.