About NNID Foundation and this website

NNID Foundation (NNID, Netherlands organisation for sex diversity) was established on 8 July 2013 with the aim of achieving the following goals:

  • Promoting equal rights and empowerment of intersex people.
  • To promote the visibility of these people in society.
  • To serve the (social) interests of these people.

NNID takes a human rights perspective in which demedicalisation and depathologisation plays an important role.

Logo NNIDStrictly speaking, intersex is not a medical problem. After all, we have no pain, cannot be cured and do not die from it. But in many cases intersex is accompanied by problems that require good medical and/or psychosocial care. Demedicalisation is therefore not the same as severing contact with doctors. On the contrary. Demedicalisation focuses on ending the unnecessary ‘normalizing’ medical treatment of intersex persons, and at the same time focuses on improving the necessary care.

Existing medicalization is one of the main reasons why the equality of intersex persons should receive more attention. Although intersex has always existed, it is less than a century since doctors were asked to offer a ‘solution’ to what society apparently could not or would not accept. In the Second World War a lot of experience was gained with repairing damaged body parts by means of skin grafting. Techniques to anaesthetize people also became less of a risk and it even became possible to anaesthetize children. In the 1950’s intersex became surgically operable and thus also pathologised. The call to demedicalise is therefore not new – we are asking society to accept intersex as a natural variation, just like before.

The focus of NNID compared to the focus of patient associations and doctors/treatment professionals.

The focus of NNID compared to the focus of patient associations and doctors/treatment professionals.

The government’s core values in its equality policy are autonomy, resilience and equality. These are topics on which intersex people still have a lot of catching up to do. Many lgb-organisations have little or no expertise in this area, but do add the i to lgbt. As a result, governments often listen to people who believe they support the interests of intersex people, but have no idea what is really going on. That has to change, and that is why NNID is an active partner for the government.

In order to determine how the goals can best be achieved, we conduct interviews with individuals and organisations in which, on the one hand, we discuss what intersex persons are concerned about and, on the other hand, we examine how intersex persons can be heard.

Intersex is not a specifically Dutch subject and in order to bring about change in its own country, NNID is also active at European and UN level.

The board of NNID is formed by:

  • Inge Intven, chair Supervisory Board
  • Kirstin van Knippenberg, board member
  • vacant

Executive Director:

  • Miriam van der Have