UN expert backs gender recognition reforms being considered in Scotland

A UN expert has restated his backing for controversial gender reforms which could be approved by MSPs next week.

Victor Madrigal-Borloz – the UN’s independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity – said in a letter to the UK Government this week that the changes proposed in Scotland will bring the country more in line with UN guidelines on gender.

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which will go to a final vote in Holyrood next week, will make it easier for trans people to acquire a gender recognition certificate by removing the requirement for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

It will also lower the minimum age for applicants from 18 to 16, and drop the time required for an applicant to live in their acquired gender from two years to three months – six for people aged 16 and 17 – though with a subsequent three-month reflection period.

Opponents of the Bill have called into question its impact on women and girls, particularly around the integrity of single-sex spaces and the potential for predators to exploit the law to prey on vulnerable women.

Among those to have voiced concern about the law change is Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur for violence against women and girls.

The Scottish Government has repeatedly said the legislation will have no impact on the Equality Act – which provides for the exclusion of trans people from single-sex spaces in some circumstances.

Mr Madrigal-Borloz, who previously appeared before a Holyrood committee about the Bill, said in a letter that his office could find no examples in countries that have adopted similar laws – covering more than 250 million people – of such abuses.

“My mandate has not received any information of administrative or criminal judicial findings that the self-identification process has been used by predatory men for the purpose of perpetrating gender or sexual violence against women in gender-segregated spaces in any of those countries or regions; and desk and online research to that effect has not yielded any results,” he wrote.

“Similarly, there are no reported cases that would support the submission that crimes perpetrated by trans women, trans men or nonbinary persons are the result of an abuse of the system of legal recognition for the purpose of gaining undue access to a segregated space or any gender-related differential treatment.

“In other words, in the countries that have legal recognition of gender identity based on self-identification, there is no credible evidence to suggest systemic risk of predatory men using the process of identifying and living as a woman as an opportunity to perpetrate gender or sexual-based violence.”

Political opponents of the Bill in Scotland and Ms Alsalem have called for the legislation to be paused until more work can be done to assess the impact on women and girls.

But Mr Madrigal-Borloz said in his letter: “I am concerned that these efforts may respond to erroneous information based on the stigma and prejudice that have long permeated efforts to deny legal recognition to persons based on their gender identity, and thereby deny them equal access to services and the full enjoyment of their human rights.

“I have also observed exclusionary narratives in the public discourse surrounding the consideration of the Bill, and against trans persons more generally.”