➢ ➢ ➢ ➢ children belonging to ethnic minorities, refugee children, migrant children, children with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and intersex children and children living with persons from those groups Develop and implement a child rights-based health-care protocol for intersex children, setting the procedures and steps to be followed by health teams ensuring that no one is subjected to unnecessary medical or surgical treatment during infancy or childhood, guaranteeing the rights of children to bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination and provide families with intersex children with adequate counselling and support Promptly investigate incidents of surgical and other medical treatment of intersex children without informed consent and adopt legal provisions to provide redress to victims of such treatment, including adequate compensation Educate and train medical and psychological professionals on the range of biological and physical sexual diversity and on the consequences of unnecessary surgical and other medical interventions on intersex children Extend free access to surgical interventions and medical treatment related to their intersex condition to intersex children between the age of 16 and 18 FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION 63. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) was made illegal in New Zealand in 1996 through an amendment to the Crimes Act. However, advocacy groups such as The FGM Education Programme consider that the current provisions are insufficient. They have stated:60 This current definition contains a technically inaccurate description of FGM as it only refers to some types of FGM and excludes incision, which is frequently practised in FGM Type 4. Therefore, it urgently requires updating to comply with the current World Health Organization definition which includes all the types of FGM (under “other injury”) most commonly practised as follows: “Female genital mutilation (FGM) means all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”. Copied from WHO Female Genital Mutilation Definition, 2016. RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD OF LIVING – ARTICLE 14 64. Despite the many efforts of communities and successive Governments, disparities in social and economic outcomes remain a reality for some groups of people. Those seriously affected include women and girls, Māori, Pacific people, migrants, refugees and disabled people. 65. While the 2015 OECD Economic Survey on New Zealand acknowledged that New Zealand has generally done well in enabling economic and social participation of its people, income 60 FGM Education Programme, Discussion document outlining the need to update the definition of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the Amendment to the Crimes Act 1996 Section 204A to prevent FGM occurring in New Zealand, 2016 13