Part of our Everyday Work NHRI Guidelines for Mainstreaming SOGISC Work 2. Some human rights issues for LGBTI people in this region Chapters 2, 3 and 4 in the APF manual provide comprehensive summaries of human rights issues faced by LGB, T and I people respectively in this region. This section highlights some of the most pressing issues and opportunities for making a real difference in LGBTI people’s lives. 2.1. HUMAN RIGHTS FOR INTERSEX PEOPLE The APF/UNDP blended learning course has shown that NHRIs have much less knowledge and experience working on human rights issues affecting intersex people than on human rights issues relating to sexual orientation or gender identity. “I came into this course thinking that [being] intersex was by choice but the more I have read through the materials have come to understand that people are born with [intersex variations].” There is an opportunity for NHRIs to help address this information gap. The Office of the High Commission for Human Rights has specifically recommended that “National human rights bodies should research and monitor the human rights situation of intersex people”.6 Some NHRIs in this region have already started this work. Others may not have looked at the experiences of intersex people directly but have relevant expertise from their work on human rights issues associated with medical interventions. For example, there may be overlaps between an NHRI’s actions against female genital mutilation or forced sterilisation of people with disabilities and the approach it would take to human rights issues faced by intersex people. Increasingly, UN treaty bodies are asking governments to provide information on steps they are taking to prohibit forced sterilisations and non-urgent, irreversible so-called “genital normalising” surgeries on intersex infants and children. These include: • the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s recommendations to Nepal and to New Zealand7 and • the Committee Against Torture’s List of Issues to Australia8 in December 2016 and to New Zealand in May 20179 The National Human Rights Commission of Nepal participated in Nepal’s first national intersex workshop in January 2016. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission co-hosted its third Intersex Roundtable in April 2016, bringing together multiple stakeholders to address New Zealand’s current practice of so-called “genital normalisation” on intersex children. The Commission is working with civil society and government to implement the outcomes of that Roundtable.10 In October 2016, the Australian Human Rights Commission announced it would be evaluating the current approaches to medical interventions on intersex people in Australia. “We will develop a nationally consistent, human rights based approach to decision making regarding medical interventions.”11 7