MEDDLING Eurocrats have warned Britain’s approach to trans rights and protests could breach the European Convention on Human Rights.
In its latest extraordinary overreach, the Council of Europe said the Government’s plans to uphold biological sex in single-sex spaces and clamp down on pro-Palestine extremists risk breaking international law.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)AFP – Getty
AFPHome Secretary Shabana Mahmood[/caption]
Michael O’Flaherty, the Council’s human rights commissioner, wrote that Britain’s stance “could lead to widespread exclusion of trans people from many public spaces” and “may severely infringe on their ability to participate fully and equally in society.”
His intervention follows an April Supreme Court ruling, which confirmed that “sex” and “woman” in law mean biological sex and not gender identity.
The ruling paved the way for new Government guidance across schools, prisons, and public services, confirming that women’s-only spaces can be reserved for biological females.
But Mr O’Flaherty claimed Britain risked breaching the Convention if it implemented the ruling too strictly.
He said: “It should be ensured that steps taken towards implementing the Supreme Court judgment avoid a situation where a person’s legal gender recognition is voided of practical meaning, to the extent that it leaves trans people in an unacceptable ‘intermediate zone’.”
Mr O’Flaherty also raised concern about the potential for organisations to require trans people to habitually “out” themselves publicly when accessing services or facilities.
He argued that “forced or non-consensual disclosure of private data falls within the sphere of private life under Article 8 of the Convention”.
In his letter to the two committee chairs on human rights and women and equalities, Mr O’Flaherty added: “Beyond privacy concerns, being forced to disclose sex assigned at birth may also significantly increase people’s vulnerability to harassment, abuse and even violence.”
In a separate letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, he also raised alarm over the Government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.
The eurocrat wrote: “Domestic legislation designed to counter ‘terrorism’ or ‘violent extremism’ must not impose any limitations on fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, that are not strictly necessary for the protection of national security and the rights and freedoms of others.
“I ask the government to take all necessary steps to ensure that the policing of protests conforms to this and related principles of law.”
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
