UN experts speak at Holyrood committee before gender reforms debated

MSPs have heard from two UN experts ahead of what could become a marathon parliamentary sitting as more than 150 amendments to gender reforms are set to be debated.

Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a UN expert on gender identity, and Reem Alsalem, the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women, spoke to members of Holyrood’s equalities committee on Monday ahead of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill debate.

However, Mr Madrigal-Borloz told the more than two-hour committee meeting there was “no evidence” that “maintaining complexity in the process of recognition of gender identity would be an effective safeguard”.

The Bill is expected to pass this week after a controversial journey through the Scottish Parliament in recent months.

Opponents of the legislation, which would make it easier for trans people to obtain a gender recognition certificate, fear it could be a danger to women and girls, particularly around the provision of single-sex spaces.

The Scottish Government has insisted repeatedly that the legislation will not impact on the Equality Act, which allows for trans people to be excluded from single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and shelters.

Ms Alsalem told the committee that the Bill should be paused to allow for a “comprehensive adjustment” because there were “issues preceding the current reform that have to be addressed” including its relationship with the Equality Act and impact on single-sex spaces.

“It’s just taking the time to do this properly and not to rush through it while at the same time ensuring that we look at the totality of rights,” she said.

Asked what more would have had to have been done to consider the Bill not rushed, she pointed to the levels of “polarisation and very, very strong feelings” as a “reasonably good sign that there’s still work that needs to be done”.

Mr Madrigal-Borloz told committee members he had grown increasingly concerned “about the toxicity of this debate and its impact on the safety and security or all, but very particularly trans persons”.

He told the committee: “In my view, there is no evidence and no legal analysis that concludes that maintaining complexity in the process of recognition of gender identity would be an effective safeguard for women in all of their diversity.”

Ms Alsalem said it was “logical and legitimate to expect that any process where there will be access to a group of individuals that may be vulnerable” to have safeguards attached.