In Aotearoa New Zealand, intersex children—born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical male or female categories are still subject to medical interventions that can cause lifelong harm. These procedures often happen before the child can consent, raising serious human rights concerns.
The UN has called on Aotearoa New Zealand to change its approach. Our 3-year research project aims to respond to that call.
Our mission
We are working to help public institutions better understand and support the human rights of intersex people. Our research brings together experts in law, health, and social sciences to explore how decisions are made and how they can be improved. Through conversations and workshops, we are learning from lived experiences and Indigenous and Pacific perspectives to promote fairer, more informed healthcare and policy choices.
Vision Mātauranga
We centre Indigenous rights and knowledge to ensure culturally grounded, inclusive outcomes, especially for Māori with variations in sex characteristics.
Key questions
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How can Aotearoa New Zealand better meet UN human rights obligations in healthcare for individuals with variations in sex characteristics ?
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What kinds of thinking and engagement lead to meaningful change?
What we are doing
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Engaging decision-makers in workshops and dialogue
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Analysing health data to understand impacts and inequalities
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Collaborating with intersex advocates, Māori and Pacific experts, and human rights leaders
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Mapping opportunities for change across public institutions
If you would like to know more about our research, download the project summary (PDF 404KB).
**This research project is funded by the Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fund Grant (opens in a new tab) (Agreement No. 110861)
Project updates
Kia ora koutou,
This is the first in a series of brief updates for "The Children's Bodily Integrity project" — our Marsden-funded project led by Professors Katrina Roen and Claire Breen (University of Waikato).
Intersex people are people with innate variations of sex characteristics. For some, intersex is an identity.
Team updates
Welcome, Project Manager: Anu Rekha Mani
We’re delighted to welcome Anu Rekha Mani as Project Manager. Anu will coordinate project planning, ethics, stakeholder engagement, and communications, and support our Research Advisory Group and workshop logistics.
Congratulations, Masters Scholarship Awardee: Shaye Woolford
Please join us in congratulating Shaye Woolford on being awarded the Master’s thesis scholarship. Shaye is a Māori psychology scholar currently completing a BSc (Hons) at the University of Waikato, researching reciprocity, social support, and anxiety (using structural equation modelling informed by kaupapa Māori principles). She brings recent experience in community mental health (Emerge Aotearoa), research assistance, and university teaching support with strengths in SPSS/Amos, Qualtrics, and culturally responsive practice.
Research Advisory Group (RAG)
We are delighted to have a highly talented team of people supporting this project, providing advice at key points along the way. We look forward to launching our project website, making this group visible.
Project status
Ethics: The full application is currently progressing through the University of Waikato Research Ethics Committee’s review process, with ongoing clarifications and refinements underway. Subsequent phases of engagement will commence once approval is confirmed.
Engagement with public bodies
We have begun informal scoping conversations with the following organisations:
- Ministry of Health (Manatū Hauora)
- Ministry of Justice (Te Tāhū o te Ture)
- Human Rights Commission (Te Kāhui Tika Tangata)
- ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) (Te Kaporeihana Āwhina Hunga Whara)
We will commence dialogue with the following organisations in the near future:
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade (MFAT) (Manatū Aorere)
- Children’s Commissioner (Mana Mokopuna)
- Ministry for Children (Oranga Tamariki)
- Law Commission (Te Aka Matua o te Ture)
- Health & Disability Commissioner (HDC) (Te Toihau Hauora, Hauātanga)
To protect the integrity of the research and uphold participant confidentiality, we won’t name specific individuals or leaders involved in these conversations.
What’s next
- Finalise RAG membership and hold our second hui.
- Progress through the research ethics approval process and continue developing materials.
- Continue relationship-building with key agencies, with a focus on human rights and children’s rights, Indigenous models of health and wellbeing, bodily integrity and healthcare.
If you have links you can share within the public bodies of interest, please let us know. We welcome your input.
Kia ora koutou,
Welcome to Update 2 for "The Children's Bodily Integrity project" — our Marsden-funded project led by Professors Katrina Roen and Claire Breen (University of Waikato).
This research is designed to build knowledge about the relationship between international human rights commitments and health policies and practices in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Project team
We are pleased to share that Jelly O’Shea has now been appointed as co-facilitator for the research workshops, further strengthening the project’s workshop planning and delivery.
Sharing knowledge
We now have a project webpage to help showcase the research and support wider visibility.
The project was highlighted in a keynote presentation, titled ‘Intersex healthcare, psychosocial subjects and decolonising knowledges’ by Professor Katrina Roen at the conference “Intersex Insights: Heritage, Visibility and Recognition” (Dublin, June 2025).
Project status
Ethics approval for the empirical aspects of the study was granted by the University of Waikato Health Research Ethics Committee in November 2025.
We have continued developing both the legal and empirical strands of the project. Work on the international human rights law framework is underway, including document searching and initial analysis relating to Aotearoa New Zealand’s implementation of its international obligations.
The hospital (surgery) data have now been collected and are undergoing health economics analysis.
Engagement with public bodies
During the latter part of 2025, we focused on building relationships through a series of informal conversations with senior officials and others across Ministries and government entities.
These conversations are helping us better understand:
- how human rights and intersex rights are currently understood in these contexts
- where there may be opportunities for meaningful engagement and change
This early engagement has also informed Professor Breen’s analysis of key legal texts. It has also helped us begin mapping a network of official bodies for whom intersex human rights and Aotearoa New Zealand’s commitments are especially relevant.
We are now drawing on our network to recruit participants into structured conversations and research workshops. If you know of someone working in the public sector in Aotearoa New Zealand who might be willing to consider participating in this research, please put us in contact.
Research Participation
We are now inviting into the research, key people within public bodies concerned with human rights, health and children/youth. People in relevant roles can participate in the research via a recorded individual conversation and/or a short series of workshops.
The research aims to inform policy, decision-making and staff training within the public sector. The researchers are working with government bodies to make this project as relevant and productive for staff as possible.
Vision Mātauranga
A strong commitment to Vision Mātauranga continues to shape the project.
Our first Master’s scholarship has been awarded to a Ngāti Ranginui scholar, who is helping ensure that Mātauranga Māori principles are woven through the workshopping process and data analysis.
We are also thinking carefully about how findings relating to tamariki and rangatahi Māori should be interpreted and reported. This is an area we will approach with care to help avoid misreading or misuse of the material.
What’s next
The next phase of the project will focus on:
- on-going participant recruitment
- running the first round of workshops
- progressing the health economics analysis
- drafting the project’s first manuscript
- continuing to embed Mātauranga Māori across the research
- As part of our Marsden funded research project entitled 'Children's Bodily Integrity and Human Rights', we are offering an LLM scholarship to the value of $22,000. Details of this scholarship can be found at the University of Waikato Scholarships page.
Thank you to everyone who continues to support this work. We greatly value the time, advice, and encouragement you share with us as the project moves forward.
Throughout this research, we use the word “intersex” to refer to people with innate variations of sex characteristics. We acknowledge that language is contentious and different people have strong preferences for different words.
Kia ora koutou,
Welcome to Update 3 for The Children’s Bodily Integrity project — our Marsden-funded project led by Professors Katrina Roen and Claire Breen (University of Waikato).
This research continues to build knowledge about the relationship between international human rights commitments and health policies and practices in Aotearoa New Zealand, with a focus on protecting the bodily integrity and human rights of intersex children.
Project status
We are now halfway through data collection, and the different strands of the project are progressing well. Our team has now compiled the full dataset showing the various types of surgery that have taken place in Aotearoa New Zealand over a ten-year period, and analysis is currently underway. This work will contribute to the health economics strand of the project and help us better understand the scale, patterns, and implications of these interventions. We are approximately one-third of the way through research workshops with public servants, and other key contributors to decision-making in this space. These workshops will continue over the next three months, and we remain open to welcoming more participants from relevant public sector roles, and civil society.
In addition, we have now started recorded conversations with senior government officials. These conversations are helping us understand how intersex human rights, children’s rights, and Aotearoa New Zealand’s international obligations are understood across various government and public body contexts.
Engagement and knowledge sharing
In June, Professor Katrina Roen presented a paper that drew from aspects of this research at a wānanga hosted by Intersex Aotearoa. The presentation provided an importan.t opportunity to share emerging thinking from the project and continue dialogue with communities, researchers, advocates, and practitioners.
Research participation
We are still inviting key people within public bodies concerned with human rights, health, children, youth, and public sector decision-making to participate in the research.
People in relevant roles can take part in the research through a recorded individual conversation and/or a short series of workshops. The research aims to inform policy, decision-making, and staff training within the public sector.
If you know someone working in the public sector in Aotearoa New Zealand who may be willing to consider participating, please feel free to contact us at bodilyintegrityproject@waikato.ac.nz
What’s next
The next phase of the project will focus on:
- continuing participant recruitment
- completing the remaining workshops with public servants
- progressing recorded conversations with senior government officials
- continuing analysis of the surgery dataset
- developing the health economics analysis
- preparing conference and publication outputs
- continuing to embed Vision Mātauranga and community-informed approaches across the research
Thank you to everyone who continues to support this work. We greatly value the time, advice, participation, and encouragement shared with us as the project moves forward.
Throughout this research, we use the word “intersex” to refer to people with innate variations of sex characteristics. We acknowledge that language is contentious and that different people may have strong preferences for different words.
Artist credit
We are grateful to Toni Duder-Chapman (Ngāpuhi) for their artwork contribution used across this project.
Thank you for allowing us to feature your artwork.
Contact us
Get in touch if you have any questions