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The home secretary has accused Europe’s human rights watchdog of undermining the case for Britain to remain a member of the European Convention on Human Rights after it criticised the government’s stance on transgender rights and Palestinian protests.
Senior government sources said Shabana Mahmood took a “dim view” of claims made by the Council of Europe that the government’s treatment of trans people in the UK and that the arrest of those supporting Palestine Action could breach the European Convention on Human Rights.
The claims were made in a letter to Mahmood and senior MPs by Michael O’Flaherty, the council’s human rights commissioner, after a visit to the UK. His role is to identify possible shortcomings in human rights law among countries that are signatories to the convention.
[H]e claimed trans guidance introduced across different areas of society in the UK after the ruling in April by the Supreme Court — declaring that the definition of a woman must be based on biological sex — could exclude trans people from many areas of life.
He wrote: “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’.”
His intervention is the clearest sign yet that the Strasbourg court may end up intervening in the trans rights debates in the UK — and could challenge new guidance produced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on how to apply the judgment of the Supreme Court.
[Ed: Michael O’Flaherty, Europe’s gender czar, was a Catholic Priest, who became a Professor of human rights law and led the drafting of the Yogyakarta Principles in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in 2006. O’Flaherty’s continuing association with the Catholic Church should not be forgotten by those naive about the ongoing role played by the church in undermining women’s sex-based rights.]
Source: Shabana Mahmood says rights watchdog undermines UK case to stay in ECHR
