All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not originally generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
On 12 February 2026, the European Parliament (EP) voted in favour of a recommendation to the Council of the EU on priorities for the 70th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which will take place in New York in early March 2026. Such votes often pass unnoticed, but this one drew consternation and some confusion on social media, largely because paragraph (y) called on the Council to “emphasise the importance of the full recognition of trans women as women”.
As often happens with unpopular and controversial clauses in legal documents, the “trans women are women” clause was introduced through an amendment to the original draft of the recommendation.
Yet the amendment was accepted by most voting MEPs in the plenary, not only from the socialist S&D and liberal Renew groups, but also from the conservative EPP, whose members either voted in favour or abstained. This demonstrates the rift within the conservatives seen elsewhere in Europe, as many of their members are wary of being associated with positions labelled as far right.
It is also worth remembering that the “trans women” amendment was introduced by Renew MEPs Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle (Netherlands) and Lucia Yar (Slovakia). This is the same political family that, during the previous parliamentary term, spearheaded efforts that resulted in the removal of rape- and prostitution-related provisions from the final text of the Directive on combating violence against women. Those who resisted women’s right to protection from sexual violence and exploitation now advance language that risks erasing the legal category of sex on which those rights depend.