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In 1999, the Constitutional Court of Colombia issued ruling for two intersex-related cases that restricted physicians' and parents' ability to surgically "correct" the genitals of intersex children without their consent and also recognized intersex people as a minority group deserving human rights protection. The decisions were based on the Constitution of Colombia as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (which the U.S. has so far refused to ratify) and informed by intersex activists and allies from Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) and International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).
The Colombia case is important because it is the first ruling by any nation's highest court that upheld the rights of intersex children to grow up free of medically unnecessary cosmetic surgeries on their intimate area. It also put intersex movement in the context of global human rights movements. Unfortunately, the same practice denounced by the Colombia's Constitutional Court continues in the rest of the world, including the U.S.
Intersex Society of North America received the Felipa de Souza Award from International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in 2000 for its contribution to the Colombia ruling.