Making justice: Mauro Cabral Grinspan’s fight for intersex depath­ologisation

At the intersection of human rights, medical ethics, and bodily autonomy stands Mauro Cabral Grinspan - a historian, activist, and intersex advocate whose work has reshaped global conversations on gender, health, and justice.

At the recent 2025 World Association for Sexual Health Congress in Brisbane, Mauro coordinated and chaired an Intersex, Sexual Health and Human Rights Symposium including a virtual presentation by Dr Lianne Gonsalves. Lianne is a US scientist and technical officer for the Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organisation in Geneva. Her presentation was titled "Perspectives on conducting 'sex-normalising' intersex surgeries conducted in infancy- a systematic review."

Dr Morgan Carpenter then spoke about "Law reform to protect intersex people from harmful practices in medical settings" and then Mauro concluded the symposium with his presentation titled “Making Justice to Intersex Depathologisation”.

Mauro shared a compelling vision for ending the systemic pathologisation of intersex bodies. Mauro’s presentation outlined a vision for intersex depathologisation that called for:

• Recognising bodily diversity- recognising that intersex traits are not pathologies but expressions of human variation.
• Ending “normalising” interventions and non-consensual surgeries or treatments aimed at conforming bodies to binary norms.
• Increasing access to rights-based healthcare with services that respect autonomy and informed consent.
• Cultural inclusion for intersex people so they are represented and celebrated in all spheres of life- including academic and medical conferences.
• Accountability and reparations, recognising that victims of medical violence deserve truth, justice, and guarantees of non-repetition.

Mauro’s work highlights how depathologisation extends beyond clinical reform - it’s a matter of justice, dignity, and rights. Mauro and Morgan have played pivotal roles in reforming the World Health Organisation’s approach to intersex issues and the involvement of the WHO in the Intersex Symposium was a testament to their dedication and drive. Mauro's work emphasises that intersex traits are natural variations in sex characteristics and as such, should not be medicalised or treated as disorders.

Through his role as Principal Consultant and Project Coordinator at InterAction, and his previous work with GATE (Global Action for Trans Equality), Mauro has coordinated international efforts to remove harmful diagnostic categories and promote rights-based healthcare for intersex individuals.

The push for change gained momentum in April 2024 when the UN Human Rights Council adopted the groundbreaking resolution “Combating discrimination, violence and harmful practices against intersex persons.”

The resolution called on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to investigate and report on global patterns of discrimination, violence, and harmful treatment of intersex individuals, including the structural causes behind them. In response, Mauro led the Depathologisation Project at InterAction for Health and Human Rights in submitting a comprehensive analysis. 

The submission addressed pathologisation as one of the most harmful structural issues facing intersex communities. The submission defined pathologisation as “the systematic practice of identifying certain traits as intrinsically ‘abnormal’, ‘disordered’ or ‘pathological’, and placing those traits- and the very people who embody them- under medical jurisdiction, in a context where medicine has an extraordinary capacity for instituting ontological, epistemological and normative classifications.”

The report detailed how pathologisation has directly justified and promoted violations of intersex people's rights including bodily integrity and access to health, and highlighted how anti-gender movements are politically escalating this trend.

In September, the OHCHR’s report will be presented before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. InterAction for Health and Human Rights will attend, continuing their international advocacy for a world free from stigma, discrimination, and violence against intersex people.