Towards a Whole‐incarceration‐setting Approach to Supporting and Upholding the Rights and Health of Incarcerated Persons With Innate Variations of Sex Characteristics

Towards a Whole‐incarceration‐setting Approach to Supporting and Upholding the Rights and Health of Incarcerated Persons With Innate Variations of Sex Characteristics

Introduction It is well-documented that carceral settings around the world can be hostile places for people who challenge socio-political and medical-legal binary norms concerning bodies, gender and sexuality, and are settings in which the experi- ences of people from LGBTQI communities are harmful, cruel and degrading; negatively affecting their health and wellbeing. Within this context, the experiences of incarcerated persons with innate variations of sex characteristics (IVSC; also known as intersex variations/traits) are largely invisible, misunderstood, adding epistemic injustice to their trauma.
Methods InsupportoftheDarlingtonStatement,peer-ledadvocacy,IVSC-affirmingscholarship,andinspiredbya“radical expressions of reform” agenda, this conceptual piece draws on the experiences of people with IVSC in carceral settings from a range of sources, including authoritative case reports, peer-reviewed journal articles, and grey material to first identify the range of challenges associated with upholding the rights and health of people with IVSC while incarcerated. Second, it seeks to identify how carceral setting may enact a “wholeincarceration-setting approach” to address these challenges reflec- tive of human rights obligations.
Results and Contributions The accounts from this article showcase how persons born with IVSC are a “vulnerable group” and experience significant mistreatment, human rights violations, erasure of their lived experiences and bodily diversity, including afforded limited access to much needed IVSC-affirming and competent treatment and (health)care, conferring great risk of trauma, self-harm, and suicide.
Conclusions If enforced, this whole-setting approach can result in carceral settings being more supportive in promoting and upholding the rights and health of people with IVSC, reflective of human rights and anti-discrimination legislation made possible by the work of IVSC peer and advocacy organisations.
PolicyImplications Thisconceptualarticlehighlightsimplicationsforpolicyandpractice,andmuchneededfurtherresearch regarding the lived carceral experiences of persons with IVSC. The article identifies the ways in which carceral settings might enact a whole-setting approach that offers recommendations on how these settings may become more informed, inclusive, affirming, humane, and safe places for people with IVSC while serving their sentence, including stressing the importance of alternative methods of accountability for those who do harm, outside the criminal-legal system.

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