Stonewall fails in bid to have equalities watchdog stripped of UN status

Stonewall has failed in its attempt to have Britain’s equalities watchdog stripped of top-level UN status over its stance on trans issues.

In a significant blow for the LGBT charity, an international tribunal has decided that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) should retain its “A status’ as a national human rights organisation.

Stonewall and other organisations wrote to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (Ganhri) last year to ask it to carry out a “special review” into the EHRC, claiming it is anti-trans.

They cited the watchdog’s advice to the Government that the 2010 Equality Act should be rewritten to make it explicit that protections for women on the grounds of their sex means their biological sex and not the gender they identify with.

The organisation was angry with the commission’s advice that transgender people could be legitimately excluded from single-sex services if the reasons were “justifiable and proportionate”.

It also claimed the watchdog’s investigation into staff complaints against its chairman Baroness Falkner had been flawed.

The Telegraph revealed earlier this year that women’s rights groups had written to Ganhri accusing Stonewall of running a vindictive campaign against Lady Falkner with the same sort of “unreasonable, vexatious complaints” used to harass ordinary women at work.

In response to the letter from the women’s rights groups in February, the charity said: “Stonewall was one of dozens of LGBTQ+, human rights and disability charities that submitted evidence to Ganhri.

“Ganhri made several clear recommendations on the need for EHRC to strengthen its work to promote and protect the rights of LGBTI people, migrants and asylum seekers, people with disabilities and issues with racial discrimination, in line with international human rights standards. The issues are wide and serious, which this letter fails to acknowledge.”

If Ganhri had found against the EHRC, it would have led to it being stripped of its top-level UN accreditation.

‘We routinely demonstrate our impartiality’

Welcoming the decision, Lady Falkner pledged to retain her independence from “activist organisations wishing to unduly influence our legal opinions and policy”.

“We always believed there were inaccuracies in the submissions made against us,” she said. “We are pleased that, following a full assessment of the evidence, the accreditation committee agree that we continue to meet the highest standards.

“As chairwoman of the EHRC, I am confident that we demonstrate those standards every day, in everything we do.

“I can reassure all those we work with, and the British public we serve, that we take great pride in our independence from government. But it is important too, to maintain our independence from activist organisations wishing to unduly influence our legal opinions and policy. We routinely demonstrate our impartiality through our willingness to challenge both robustly.”

She added: “We take seriously our obligation to protect and promote equality and human rights for everyone. That includes considering, carefully and impartially, and on the basis of evidence, how the rights of one person or group might be affected by the rights of another.

“The role of the referee is not always appreciated… We may be challenged along the way, but the EHRC will strike the right balance when upholding everyone’s rights.”

Last year, Lady Falkner was placed under investigation after 12 current or former EHRC staff members made dozens of allegations against her.

Details of the complaints were never made public, but her supporters believed they were sparked by the position her watchdog had taken on trans rights. The investigation ended with her keeping her position.

Stonewall has been contacted for comment and said they were waiting to see the Ganhri full write-up.

Maya Forstater, the chief executive of Sex Matters, said: “This surely must end the trans activist lobby’s spiteful campaign to undermine the EHRC. This campaign has seen the UK’s human rights body threatened with losing its ‘A status’.

“A downgrade based on the misconceived claims of trans activists would have ranked the EHRC alongside the human rights institutions of Hungary, Myanmar and Uzbekistan, and behind those of Iraq and Qatar.

“It was only after the EHRC withdrew from Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme in 2021 that the trans activist lobby’s attempts to sabotage the EHRC began.”

She added: “This decision vindicates both the EHRC and Baroness Falkner’s leadership.

“Employers still taking Stonewall’s advice need to understand that they may be falling foul of the Equality Act as a result, and fostering a culture where gender-critical staff members are subjected to witch hunts by activist colleagues.”