Britain’s equality watchdog could lose its right to participate at the UN human rights council as a result of complaints about its independence and record on transgender rights.
The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (Ganhri), which accredits bodies based on internationally recognised standards, has launched a special review of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
The review could lead to the commission losing its A status, which gives it independent participation rights at the UN human rights council as well as the right to vote and hold governance positions in Ganrhi.
An initial submission for the EHRC to be stripped of its A status was made by a coalition of 19 LGBT+ organisations led by Stonewall and supported by the Good Law Project in February last year, claiming politicisation of the regulator and a “determinedly anti-trans stance”.
In October last year, Ganrhi’s accreditation subcommittee said the commission should be reaccredited with A status but recommended that the regulator address “key human rights issues” including “the promotion and protection of the rights of LGBTI people”, engage with LGBTI civil society organisations and ensure its independence.
Stonewall and others claim that the EHRC has failed to comply with these recommendations and so they have made another submission to Ganrhi, which has prompted the special review, as revealed by the regulator’s chair, Kishwer Falkner, in a column for the Telegraph.
Robbie de Santos, the director of external affairs at Stonewall, welcomed the review. He said: “Britain’s LGBTQ+ civil society and human rights organisations have expressed their concern about the political independence of the EHRC and its approach to trans people’s rights for some time.
“At its periodic review in October 2022, the EHRC received a number of clear recommendations regarding the independence and effectiveness of its work in respect of the rights of LGBTI people, and their cooperation with LGBTI organisations. Within months of receiving these recommendations, they were already demonstrating that they were falling short, which then prompted Stonewall and 30 LGBTQ+ and human rights organisations to provide evidence of their concerns once again to Ganhri.”
The initial complaint by Stonewall and others in February last year came after two interventions by the commission in which it recommended that the UK government’s proposed ban on conversion practices not extend to trans people, and wrote to the Scottish government asking it to pause plans to simplify the legal requirements for gender recognition. It later changed its position on conversion practices to support a ban in relation to trans people.
In April, the EHRC faced further criticism from trans rights campaigners for advice to the UK government on the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act 2010, in which it said transgender people could be legitimately excluded from single-sex services if the reasons were “justifiable and proportionate”.
Concerns about the EHRC’s independence from the UK government have also been voiced by its former chair David Isaac and some current staff.
Falkner said: “We are disappointed that we will have to defend our accreditation status in this way and remain very confident that we will be able to respond robustly to any questions the SCA (special committee on accreditation at Ganrhi) may have.
“We have already written to the committee to highlight inaccuracies in the submissions made against us and to strongly reject claims that we are not compliant with the Paris principles. We take great pride in our independence from government and continue to demonstrate our impartiality through our willingness to robustly challenge them.”
Ganhri said the report from its September/October session, at which the EHRC said the decision was taken to launch a special review, would remain confidential until it was published online in the coming days.
