Trans people ‘have had their human rights breached’ after Supreme Court ruling

The government’s treatment of trans people in the UK could breach their human rights, a top European equality official has said.

The Supreme Court ruled in April that the word ‘woman’ refers to biological sex under anti-discrimination law, in a blow to trans rights.

Judges stressed that the ruling was not a comment on whether trans women are women and that it would not change their legal rights.

Britain’s equality watchdog, the EHRC, has issued guidance following the ruling that recommends single-sex service providers – think public bathrooms or changing rooms – ban trans women altogether.

Michael O’Flaherty, the human rights commissioner at the Council of Europe, has told the government his concerns about the decision after visiting the UK to observe human rights.

He wrote to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and MPs that he observed how discussions about trans women have ‘tended towards’ their exclusion, which would go against the European Convention on Human Rights.

‘It would therefore be crucial for all stakeholders to receive clear guidance on how inclusion of trans people can be achieved across all areas, and how exclusion can be minimised to situations in which this would be strictly necessary and proportionate, in line with well-established human rights principles,’ he wrote.

O’Flaherty warned that trans people must not be forced to obtain a gender recognition act – a document that allows a person to change the gender marker on their birth certificate.

Very few trans people in the UK have the document – only 6,000 of around 262,000 trans people have been issued one.

The treaty, he stressed, ‘guarantees the right of trans people to personal development and to physical and moral security’.

O’Flaherty added: ‘It is also to be recalled that not all trans people wish to obtain legal gender recognition, and in reality simply live according to their gender identity.

‘This does not in any way diminish their right to be treated with dignity, to be protected from discrimination, and to be able to participate in all areas of everyday life.’

Tammy Hymas, policy lead at the campaign group TransActual, told Metro: ‘The government wants to sign off in secret on a bathroom ban that would exclude and segregate trans people from public life.

‘The EHRC’s proposals are not just unworkable in practice, but as the Commissioner highlights, would result in grave human rights violations.

‘Bridget Phillipson and this government have a decision to make: will they align the UK with Trump and Republican US states? Or will they ensure service providers that want to include trans people can continue doing so?’

Jess O’Thomson, the head of policy at the campaign group Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, also called on the government to reject the EHRC’s guidance.

‘The minister must reject it and insist the EHRC try again – making clear how to include trans people, not just exclude,’ they said.

‘Exclusion of trans people from services for their lived gender, the letter makes clear, must be the exception – not the rule.

‘The commissioner also emphasises that legal gender recognition cannot only apply to things like pensions and marriages, but must have real meaning in people’s everyday lives.

‘The government is going to have to ensure this in order to comply with its human rights obligations.’

English Defence League, an Islamophobic, nationalist group known for its violent street protests in the late 2000s and 2010s.

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