We express grave concerns over the series of harmful statements made and actions1 taken by the current UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem.
To our dismay, the Special Rapporteur has persistently advocated for additional obstacles and conditions to legal gender recognition that undermine the rights protections of trans people, rather than calling for bodily autonomy for all. Instead of strengthening protections of marginalized groups and contributing to progressive legacies of previous Special Rapporteur and feminist movements that untiringly advocated for the creation of the office, we witness that the current Special Rapporteur is misusing her position and power to advocate for discriminatory policies against trans people and misapplying established human rights principles and frameworks.
We are alarmed that the Special Rapporteur has weaponized “protection of women’s rights” to advocate for positions that misrepresent and regress from international norms and standards. In advocating for “single sex spaces” and increased barriers to legal gender recognition, the Special Rapporteur has also called for the “return” to an understanding of violence against women that is “based on their female sex”2 and upholds “sex-based rights.”3 Not only does this deviate from a feminist and scientific understanding of “sex” as being socially constructed, rather than fixed, essentialist, binary, biological and based on physiological characteristics. It is also contrary to international human rights standards that have evolved considerably to address discrimination based on gender45 which has been defined as a social construct “….that justifies inequality and provides a means to categorize, order and symbolize power relations.”6 In opposing the use of gender based discrimination to justify harmful policies against trans people and protect women’s “sex based rights,” the Special Rapporteur perpetuates and mirrors arguments and strategies used by states in the UN who increasingly oppose the use of “gender” in intergovernmental negotiations and other UN policy spaces.
We reject the co-optation of the human rights framework, particularly the notion put forward by the Special Rapporteur that the fulfillment of the rights of trans women and cis women is or can be conflicting and incompatible7. We denounce the mandate holder’s grave misuse of the feminist concept of ‘intersectionality.’8 In doing so, the Special Rapporteur actively undermines the principles of the universality and indivisibility of rights, and goes against our values as feminists.
The Special Rapporteur claims that her position is supported by “feminist organizations.”9 However, many diverse feminists, women’s rights, human rights, and LGBTIQ+ organizations and activists have voiced their disagreement with the views she is expressing. Moreover, they have attempted to raise concerns directly with her about the potential dangers of such a statement10. These attempts were made in good faith, with the purpose of providing constructive feedback so that she will, at minimum, preserve gains made by the existing mandate that has historically been invaluable to the work of feminist movements worldwide.
Based on recent statements and actions, the Special Rapporteur has indicated no intention of reconsidering her position. On the contrary, she is continuing to perpetuate narratives upholding outdated and non-scientific understandings of binary biological sex, and reinforcing unfounded and sensationalized myths that vilify and dehumanize trans women, under the guise of “protection of women’s rights.”11 In doing so, she has openly contradicted and regressed from established international human rights standards and norms on gender and sexuality, insisting on a regressive reading of international human rights law contained in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Special Rapporteurs hold a central role in the UN system as independent experts mandated to protect the rights of the marginalized and ensure implementation to remedy and prevent harm based on international human rights principles . Among the mandates of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls is to adopt a comprehensive and universal approach to the elimination of violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, including causes of violence against women relating to the civil, cultural, economic, political and social spheres.12Reem Alsalem’s publicly stated positions and actions have fundamentally compromised the mandate to address violence against women.
We unequivocally affirm the following position:
- Our work as feminists to advance the right to bodily autonomy and human rights for all cannot be isolated from the fight for legal recognition of each person’s self-defined gender identity, expression, and sexuality. As trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming persons continue to face systemic and institutionalized discrimination and violence based on their gender identity and/or expression in accessing essential services, the Special Rapporteur’s call for additional obstacles to legal gender recognition13 is in itself discriminatory. Further, the connection made between the removal of barriers for legal gender recognition with increased risk of “male violence” and “retraumatization and revictimization”14 lacks empirical evidence.15 Equally importantly, it does not reflect the lived experiences of either trans people or those interacting with them, nor, in fact, the experience of victims/survivors of violence of all genders. The Special Rapporteur’s crusade to defend “single sex spaces”16 is dangerous in two ways. First, it legitimizes and perpetuates anti-trans narratives that fuel the violence and discrimination targeted at trans people, which have intensified over the past years. Second, it dangerously misrepresents the causes, consequences, and impacts of gender-based violence against all people. We fear that the Special Rapporteur has provided a foundation from which to validate restrictions against the bodily autonomy of women and girls, along with other marginalized groups.
- The coordinated mobilization against rights protections of trans people cannot be understood in isolation from heightened hyper-nationalism and religious fundamentalisms, wider regressions and attacks on human rights globally. From the criminalization of abortion in Poland17 and the USA18, to the onslaught of anti-LGBTIQ+ laws being passed in Uganda19 and Russia20, racist anti-migrant laws and policies across Europe21, and the push for punitive and protectionist frameworks against sex work in UN policy spaces;22 these regressions aim to construct an exclusionary society that reinforces social hierarchies and norms of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, caste, and class23. Feminist research has demonstrated extensively connections between anti-trans groups justifying discrimination under the pretext of “protecting women’s rights” and religious fundamentalists groups.24
- The progress and protections afforded by international human rights law and mechanisms as we know them is a result of decades of struggle and hard work of progressive movements. Feminists, LGBTIQ+ advocates, human rights defenders, and communities negatively affected by patriarchy, racism, casteism, neoliberalism, ableism, and other forms of structural inequalities have, and continue, the struggle to dismantle these systems of oppression, and advocate for justice and liberation for all. The groundbreaking work done by all the previous UN Special Rapporteurs on Violence against Women is testament to this.25
- We recognise and affirm that our struggles for bodily autonomy are inextricably interlinked:the fulfillment of the rights of all marginalized groups, and universality and indivisibility must remain at the heart of all human rights work.
In short, none of us are free, until all of us are.
The Special Rapporteur must guarantee the mandate’s independence, accountability to rights-holders. We believe that the harmful position taken by the Special Rapporteur undermines the integrity, independence, and credibility of the Special Procedures mechanism as a whole. As feminists, we demand accountability for and a halt to the Special Rapporteur’s harmful practices. We insist that the UN system ensures voices and concerns of feminists, women’s rights, and LGBTIQ+ movements – particularly trans-led groups, are at the center rather than the margins.