28/01/2022
28/01/2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
We join LGBT Foundation in cutting all ties with the EHRC with immediate effect.
In our statement dated January 26th we denounced the EHRC guidelines on the UK conversion therapy ban and Gender Recognition Act reforms, finding them ill-informed and discriminatory.
We are gravely concerned that the EHRC has become a mouthpiece for the UK Government, a quango in all but name.
It has failed in its duty to independently advocate for equality and human rights. For over a year Gendered Intelligence and other LGBTQ+ organisations wrote to the Commission to express our concerns about their neutrality. Now we find that they, under the name of equality, are content to advise weaker protections and fewer rights for transgender people.
These statements, written by political appointees from a government seemingly dedicated to the obstruction and removal of trans rights, were the final straw. We are left with no choice but to assume that the EHRC are unable to fulfil their commitment to the marginalised people of the UK.
We join the calls from other LGBTQI+ and human rights organisations, including Stonewall, to refer the EHRC to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for urgent reconsideration of its position as a National Human Rights Institution, and will be sharing correspondence in due course.
LGBTQ+ people deserve representation and protection, and the continued failure of the Commission disrespects everyone who has struggled to overcome prejudice.
ENDS
Editors: email [email protected]