Thread by @joannaccherry

🧵This is not a legal opinion on the domestic law of Scotland. The case law of the ECHR does not mandate self identification. The system of gender recognition we currently have is within the margin of appreciation allowed by the court 1/11

https://twitter.com/victor_madrigal/status/1603544323127123970

In particular the ECHR has recognised that “stringent” procedures aimed at verifying the underlying motivation for a change of legal identity are justified see page 22 of echr.coe.int/Documents/Guid…. 2/11

This “legal opinion’ contains no analysis of the potential conflict between the proposed system of self identification and the Equality Act and, in particular, of how self ID could undermine the sex based rights of women & same sex attracted people. 3/11

Indeed there is little or no focus on the rights of LGB people which is surprising given the mandate of this Rapporteur. Eg. there is no recognition of the potential conflict of rights whereby lesbians may be forced to accept male bodied people 4/11

into their dating pool
& lesbian only spaces. Lesbians, like most women, are used to being told our rights must defer to those of men and it is men abusing a system of self ID which lesbians and women fear, not trans people per se. 5/11

Mr Madrigal-Borloz position reflects his mandate albeit his focus seems to be almost solely on the T not the LGB. When it comes to the rights of women & girls we should defer to Reem Alsalem @UNSRVAW whose mandate is violence against women & girls. 6/11

Sometimes rights conflict. Courts have to deal with this all the time. As @SexMattersOrg have argued “In some situations, conflicts of rights and interests may be a zero sum game. If the rules governing single-sex spaces are changed.. 7/11

..so that some members of the opposite sex are able to enter, those spaces become mixed-sex, and many women will self-exclude. If males who identify as women are housed in women’s prisons, women will feel and be unsafe. 8/11

If males are allowed to play in women’s sport, then fairness and safety for women are destroyed. In this sense, rights are pie and compromises that destroy the human rights of one group are unfair…9/11

Solutions are needed that respect everyone’s rights….” sex-matters.org/posts/single-s… 10/11

Finally we should note the letter is signed by one Rapporteur & does not in every aspect represent the position of the UN. I repeat that on the issue of Violence against women & girls & the UN position on that we should defer to @UNSRVAW 11/11