On April 3, 2016, Steven Svoboda appeared on the “Maria Sanchez Show.” Maria is a longtime friend of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child (ARC) and intactivism; Steven and Maria did their first show together way back in the year 2003. Their last previous show aired in July 2014.
In this hour-long show, one of Steven’s longest ever media appearances, released by Maria as a downloadable podcast available at http://bbsradio.com/podcast/shadow-politics-april-3-2016/, Steven over-viewed some recent achievements by ARC in the 1.75 years since his last show with Maria as well as developments relating to the struggle to protect children’s right to bodily integrity:
1) ARC has several articles coming out shortly, including one jointly written by Steven and ARC Legal Advisor Peter Adler, along with Bob Van Howe. Steven believes it will be the longest general article he has published on the topic. The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics will be publishing it along with the other proceedings from the October 2013 pediatric ethics conference in Charleston, South Carolina, where our arguments convinced two physicians on the panel to switch positions to our side and where we left our debate opponent, Michael Brady of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), unable to respond to our arguments. Steven and Bob Van Howe also have an article taking a new approach to analyzing the ethics of circumcision whose publication is also imminent. More details on both papers soon.
2) Steven discussed “the rights of the child vs. the rights of the parens” at the Genital Autonomy conference held in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2015. Groundbreaking panel discussions of genital autonomy featured Steven along with Soraya Mire, Marilyn Milos, and (at the first event) Hida Viloria, in enthusiastically received events in Berkeley, California in May 2015 and December 2015. ARC was also represented by Tim Hammond at the 29th Palm Springs Pride Festival in November 2015, and Steven appeared in December 2015 on Linda Gross’ Men’s Advocate radio show.
3) December 2014 marked the appearance of the draft regulations of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), to which ARC issued a press release on the same day the regulations were released. In January 2015, ARC and Intact America published a joint response to the CDC draft regulations. (arclaw.org/our-work/letters/response-intact-america-and-attorneys-rights-child-centers-disease-control-and-prev). Peter published an important article on the CDC draft regulations in the International Journal of Children’s Rights.
4) In July 2014, ARC’s “know your rights” video was filmed by James Loewen, starring ARC Board Member David Llewellyn with an introduction of David by Steven, and in September 2014 it was released on our website.
5) Along with many other organizations, ARC helped push through the US’ first human rights accountability law, California’s AB 15. In other legislative activity, ARC Legal Advisor Peter Adler testified in February 2015 at a hearing on a New Hampshire bill introduced to stop Medicaid funding for male circumcision.
6) In November 2014, Steven was honored by Intact America as “Intactivist of the Month” and shortly thereafter, in February 2015, ARC Webmaster Jonathan Friedman received the same honor.
7) ARC published several newsletter during this period, summarizing important news from throughout the world of activism to protect genital autonomy.
8) In September 2015, the Canadian Paediatric Society issued its position statement on circumcision, and ARC again issued a press release that same day responding to this development.
Generally, Steven discussed the continuing process by which the movement is broadening and deepening and diversifying and gaining new soldiers. The radio show was conducted before the latest good news, the UK legal case upholding children’s rights that came down earlier this month thanks to James Chegwidden’s hard work. We are winning!
To support the work of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child, please visit http://arclaw.org/donate.
Steven Svoboda
Attorneys for the Rights of the Child
