No grounds for hermaphrodites to be unfairly discriminated against in Fiji - Sayed-Khaiyum

Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says there are no grounds for hermaphrodites to be unfairly discriminated against in Fiji.

A hermaphrodite is a person having both male and female sex organs or other sexual characteristics, either abnormally or as the natural condition.

Reverend William Powell who is serving in the Vusu circuit along the Coral Coast raised this issue in the public lecture on the constitution at USP.

Reverend Powell says he want to know whether there are any rights for the hermaphrodites as the constitution has rights for women, men and children.

He says he knows a few people in Fiji who are hermaphrodites.

Reverend Powell says a few of the men he knows have this condition. He also asks if the government can help them in medical costs to try and determine what they become.

He says that is for the individual to choose whether they want to do that.

Sayed-Khaiyum stresses that there should be no discrimination against them.

He says the constitution covers rights for gender, gender identity and expression.

The Attorney General then highlighted a case which is currently in court where a person who was born in Fiji as a male went overseas and became a female through a gender reassignment.

The person has now come back and wants his birth certificate to say that he was born a female.

Sayed-Khaiyum says certain constitutional clauses will be used in this case.