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7th May 2025 Worldwide Day of Genital Autonomy 13th  Anniversary of the "Cologne Ruling"

Meeting point and photo opportunity:
Saturday, 3rd of May 2025, 3:00 p.m. - Rudolfplatz, 50674 Cologne, followed by rally into the city centre

Central rally with speeches:
4:00 p.m. - Heumarkt

Online:

Live-Stream directly from Cologne and pre-produced videos from 3:00 p.m.

The list of speeches planned so far in the live stream and the central rally can be found here [link to follow].
Further posts after announcement on www.genital-autonomy.de, YouTube and Facebook.

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This will be the thirteenth anniversary of the "Cologne Ruling". In 2012, for the first time, a court explicitly granted boys the right to genital self-determination by concluding that medically unnecessary foreskin removal ("circumcision") from a boy is an offense. This decision has since become a worldwide beacon for the self-determination of children regardless of gender, ancestry or religion.

This year's main focus: GENITAL AUTONOMY and equality!

Equality means ensuring equal human and children’s rights across the board.  What work still needs to be done to achieve genital autonomy for all? This year’s WWDOGA will illuminate this issue while bringing together diverse international voices to discuss this crucial topic.

 

The "Worldwide Day of Genital Autonomy" calls for:

• Adherence to and implementation of the UN-Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 2 (protection against discrimination); Article 3 (precedence of children's well-being); and Article 24 Paragraph 3 (abolishment of traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children).
• Legislative initiatives worldwide that provide for the protection of all children, regardless of gender, from non-therapeutic genital operations.
• Protection of children with atypical sex characteristics from genital surgery and intervention without absolute medical indication.
• An immediate stop to group or mass circumcision of minor males (boys) for alleged HIV prevention in African countries.
• Public research and education on the consequences of non-therapeutic genital surgery on children in its different forms and social contexts.

 

Main Focus 2025: Genital Autonomy and equality

Equality meaning ensuring equal opportunities for all, grounded in human rights. This is vitally important for children who are unable to stand up for their own rights. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child condemns any kind of discrimination based on factors such as gender and place of birth. Nonetheless, true equality regarding genital autonomy remains a distant goal globally. Whether or not a child’s genitals “deserve” protection comes down to societal, political and legal variables.
In practice, this means that a male child’s foreskin can be amputated without medical necessity, while on the other hand, the WHO labels any alteration of a female child’s vulva as genital mutilation (FGM). While discussions among specialists and politicians on intersex genital surgeries have been gaining momentum – even leading to the very first legal protections in certain countries – true equality for all demands going further!

We ask the following questions:

• Why do nearly all authorities and political entities cut genital autonomy out of the otherwise popular discussion on equality?
• Which gender roles does this legitimize or reinforce?
• What would be the most effective measures to bring about true equality?

WWDOGA will feature diverse voices on this topic, including victims, experts, parents, human rights organizations and politicians.

 

When will girls finally be protected?

According to the WHO, female genital mutilation refers to all practices in which the outer genitalia are partly or completely removed, as well as to all other injuries to the female genitalia that are not medically indicated. Depending on the motives and category of cutting, the intervention leads to medical, psychological, social and economic consequences. The practice is, in every form, internationally recognized as a serious human rights violation and is still practiced worldwide: in 29 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in South, Southeast and Central Asia, as well as in Europe, the US and Canada. Particularly in Asia, the number of surgeries done by medical staff are increasing, leading to repeated calls for legal acquiescence - which clearly contradicts the WHO.

 

Boys own their own genitals, too

The trivializing term “circumcision” stands for the amputation of the foreskin of the penis, which involves the loss of approximately 50% of the entire penile skin - including the parts most sensitive to sexual stimulation - and irreversibly alters the natural physiology of the penis and its appearance. Possible psychological long-term effects are increasingly being documented. Total foreskin removal is medically avoidable except in very rare cases. A snug or non-retractile foreskin does not constitute a medical condition in children and adolescents if the boy has no painful obstruction, which is a rare condition. Usually, the opening becomes wider by the end of puberty. In instances of an actual medical condition, most cases can be treated non-invasively.

 

Suffering and trauma of intersex children due to genital surgery without their consent

One or two out of every 1000 children are born with "atypical" sexual characteristics. Time and again this has led to early genital operations to “assign” a gender, and to hormonal treatments before the capacity to consent. The affected persons often report feeling altered and resentful that their input was never sought out about their own sex. All German paediatric associations currently recommend delaying those measures to an age where the person affected is able to give informed consent.  At the international level, as well, the technical discussion is moving in this direction. However, physical integrity and self-determination must still be integrated into practice in many places. For 20 years, the people affected have been publicly protesting these surgeries, which they describe in terms of fundamental human rights violations, as being traumatising and as destructive to sexual sensation. These are allegations that are also backed by human rights committees like the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC).

 

Discrimination against transsexual people

Trans* people often want to match their physical characteristics to their true gender by surgery. If a vulva is to be formed from a penis without the foreskin, ideal tissue is missing to a considerable extent.

 

There is no room for hatred and misanthropy!
We urge all participants to clearly distance themselves from generalizations and animosity and to be absolutely clear that this is solely about the well-being, bodily integrity, and right to self-determination of children.