{"id":1762,"date":"2025-07-15T08:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/1762\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T08:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:59:07","slug":"council-of-europe-head-concerned-over-trans-rights-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/1762\/","title":{"rendered":"Council of Europe head &#8216;concerned&#8217; over trans rights in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                <img width=\"792\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michael-OFlaherty-Council-of-Europe.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Michael O'Flaherty, pictured.\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Council of Europe commissioner, Michael O\u2019Flaherty, said he is \u2018concerned\u2019 over the UK\u2019s treatment of trans people. (Getty)<\/p>\n<p>A human rights regulator has expressed concern at the treatment of transgender people in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>During a visit to the UK, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights said that transgender men and women faced \u201cacute marginalisation across all areas of life\u201d and have been subjected to \u201cintense political and public debate and scrutiny\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Michael O\u2019Flaherty\u2019s comments come in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling which deemed that the definition of a woman in the 2010 Equality Act referred to \u201cbiological women\u201d only, excluding trans women. <\/p>\n<p>While the verdict had been criticised by human rights groups and activists, prime minister<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepinknews.com\/2025\/06\/30\/keir-starmer-supreme-court-trans-ehrc-single-sex-spaces\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Keir Starmer<\/a> welcomed the decision and has urged public bodies to bar trans people from single-sex spaces \u201cas soon as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"616\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Keir-Starmer-Europe.jpg\" alt=\"Keir Starmer exiting Number 10 Downing Street.\" class=\"wp-image-867048\"  \/>Keir Starmer wants public bodies to fall into line behind the Supreme Court ruling. (Getty)<\/p>\n<p>Following the ruling, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the UK\u2019s human rights regulator, issued interim guidance for service providers, recommending that trans people be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepinknews.com\/2025\/06\/12\/ehrc-chair-baroness-kishwer-falkner-right-to-privacy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">banned<\/a> from facilities associated with their gender identity and, in some cases, their birth sex as well.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Flaherty was critical of the focus on the \u201cexclusion of trans people\u201d rather than committing to their \u201cinclusion and dignity\u201d. The human rights of all people should be a \u201czero-sum game,\u201d he said, and all legal or policy decisions should be \u201chuman rights-compliant\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Genocide prevention group issues \u2018red-flag\u2019 warning over trans rights in UK<\/p>\n<p>His words echoed those of the Lemkin Institute, an international genocide prevention group, which condemned \u201cjudicial and governmental\u201d decisions that rescinded trans rights.<\/p>\n<p>Issuing a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepinknews.com\/2025\/07\/02\/lemkin-institute-trans-red-flag\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">red-flag<\/a>\u201d alert, an institute spokesperson said the government and the EHRC, were trying to \u201charm transgender and intersex people in the UK by stripping them of privacy and segregating them as \u2018others\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The media narrative, which acts as part of a \u201cbroader process of erasure\u201d, also came in for criticism.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"571\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Pride-protest.jpg\" alt=\"LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM \u2013 APRIL 19, 2025: Transgender people and their supporters stage a protest in Parliament Square in support of trans rights following this week's UK Supreme Court unanimous ruling that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex, in London, United Kingdom on April 19, 2025. The demonstrators argue that this ruling could result in roll back of the rights and safety of trans people as public bodies and employers update their codes of practice.\" class=\"wp-image-859134\"  \/>A human rights specialist has voiced his fears about trans rights in the UK. (Getty)<\/p>\n<p>The UK\u2019s legal and policy actions against transgender people matched the Lemkin\u2019s ninth Pattern of Genocide: denial and\/or prevention of Identity, the spokesperson claimed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenocide does not only manifest in the killing of an entire group. In the case of trans and intersex people, genocide is often perpetrated by making it impossible for individuals to exist as their true selves,\u201d they said. \u201cWe see evidence of genocidal intent and actions targeting these communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis hostile environment is a subtle, pernicious and clear attempt to eradicate transgender and intersex people from British life because their existence causes ideological discomfort to some\u2026 the anti-trans movement is based solely on ignorance and bigotry, whether it is cloaked in religion or \u2018feminist\u2019 or any other doctrinal or ideological belief system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Share your thoughts!\u00a0Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"h3\">How did this story make you feel?<\/p>\n<p>\n                    \ud83d\udd25<br \/>\n                    Fired up\n                <\/p>\n<p>\n                    \u2764\ufe0f<br \/>\n                    Love\n                <\/p>\n<p>\n                    \ud83d\ude0a<br \/>\n                    Happy\n                <\/p>\n<p>\n                    \ud83d\ude10<br \/>\n                    Meh\n                <\/p>\n<p>\n                    \ud83d\ude21<br \/>\n                    Annoyed\n                <\/p>\n<p>\n                    \ud83d\ude22<br \/>\n                    Sad\n                <\/p>\n<p>\n        Sending reaction&#8230;\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n        Thanks for your feedback!\n    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Council of Europe commissioner, Michael O\u2019Flaherty, said he is \u2018concerned\u2019 over the UK\u2019s treatment of trans people. (Getty)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,1354,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-1762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-trans","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}