Stonewall accused of targeting boss of UK’S equalities watchdog
‘This has happened precisely because the EHRC acted within its mandate’, to protect such women’
‘She has been targeted by the same kind of complaints used to harass many women’
A COALITION of gender-critical groups have accused Stonewall of “targeting” the female boss of Britain’s equalities watchdog.
Led by women’s rights organisation Sex Matters, which believes biological sex takes precedence over self-identified gender, the 39 groups said Baroness Kishwer Falkner, the chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), was being attacked for taking action to protect women.
They said Stonewall had subjected her to the same sort of “unreasonable, vexatious complaints” used to harass “ordinary women at work”.
The groups have signed a letter to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (Ganhri), which has been persuaded by organisations such as Stonewall to carry out a “special review” into the EHRC, claiming it is anti-trans. The review could lead to it being stripped of its top-level UN accreditation. In their letter, the groups accused Stonewall of a “pattern of reprisal, harassment and intimidation” against the commission.
“Kishwer Falkner has been targeted by the same kind of unreasonable, vexatious complaints used to harass and intimidate so many ordinary women at work,” she said. “Moreover, this has happened because EHRC acted within its mandate to protect such women from being targeted in this way.”
Last year, Baroness 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 believe they were sparked by the position her watchdog had taken on trans rights. The investigation ended with her keeping her position.
Stonewall and other groups complained to Ganhri after the EHRC advised the Government on the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act 2010, in which it said transgender people could be legitimately excluded from single-sex services if the reasons were “justifiable and proportionate”.
The letter from Sex Matters was also signed by other groups including the Women’s Rights Network, the LGB Alliance, and Lesbian Labour. It said: “Stonewall is dissatisfied because the EHRC is doing its job, and is demonstrating independence from Stonewall.
“Ganhri has fallen into the trap of responding to unreasonable complaints about gender-critical speech in the same one-sided fashion that has been found to be harassment and discrimination in these recent cases. We urge you to rectify this injustice.”
A Stonewall spokesman 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.”