Legal system • Page 5
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Do crime victims deserve respect?
We think crime victims deserve respect, dignity, sensitivity, compassion and courtesy, as specified in the Victims’ Code.
10th February 2022
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Will the Joint Committee on Human Rights defend the EHRC?
Sex Matters has written to the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) to urge it to write to the United Nations to confirm its parliamentary role in overseeing the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and stating its confidence in the EHRC, after recent attacks which have sought to...
9th February 2022
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Letter to Joint Committee on Human Rights
Our February 2022 letter urging the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) to write to the United Nations to confirm its parliamentary role in overseeing the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and stating its confidence in the EHRC, after recent attacks which tried to undermine it.
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Submission to Victims’ Bill consultation
We agree with the principles set out in the consultation, but we think that victims also have the right to be treated with respect, dignity, sensitivity, compassion and courtesy.
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Organisations unite to praise the EHRC
Twenty different campaigning groups from across the UK have come together in a statement of response on the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s recent communications – with the UK Government about conversion therapy and with the Scottish Government about reform of the Gender Recognition Act. The EHRC has come...
31st January 2022
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Naomi Cunningham named in The Lawyer‘s 2022 Hot 100
Naomi Cunningham, employment and discrimination barrister and Chair of Sex Matters, has received a prestigious industry accolade, in part for her outstanding work in the debate on sex and gender, in The Lawyer’s annual “Hot 100”.
17th January 2022
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Opposing the return of gay conversion therapy: a lawyer’s view
On 16 November 2021, writes Sex Matters Chair Naomi Cunningham, I gave a talk at the Middle Temple LGBTQ+ Forum’s inaugural annual dinner, to an audience of barristers and Bar students, and their guests. Middle Temple is one of the four ancient Inns of Court: aspiring barristers must join...
16th January 2022
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What do we stand for? Criminology, politically induced ignorance and gender identity politics
Criminologist Professor Jo Phoenix explains why sex matters in criminal justice.
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Changes to the Equal Treatment Bench Book
Changes made in chapter 12 in the December 2021 update.
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College of Policing ordered to dial down the “chilling” effect on public debate
Sex Matters welcomes today’s landmark judgment from the Court of Appeal on the recording of non-crime hate incidents. It comes three years after Harry Miller received a visit from Humberside Police and had a non-crime hate incident recorded against his name after his tweets were reported as transphobic by...
20th December 2021
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Getting it right – diversity and inclusion on company boards and executive committees
The Financial Conduct Authority’s proposal for monitoring diversity and inclusion is well intentioned, but flawed. Sex Matters and Legal Feminist outline the practical and legal problems in abandoning sex-based monitoring for the controversial concept of “gender identity”, and suggest a better solution.
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Passports must show M or F for sex
An appeal was made to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal had concluded that an applicant for a passport must declare their gender/sex as being either male or female, not “unspecified” (“X”).
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X passports appeal dismissed
The Supreme Court has unanimously dismissed Christie Elan-Cane’s case for an “X” passport. The judgment states “There is no judgment of the European Court of Human Rights which establishes a positive obligation to recognise a gender category other than male or female, and none which would require the Secretary...
15th December 2021
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Equal Treatment Bench Book – interim revision December 2021
A revision of the February 2021 edition.
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No need for sex data on domestic abuse?
Yesterday the Domestic Abuse Commissioner launched a survey for survivors of domestic abuse about their experience of using domestic abuse services across England and Wales: “We are running this survey so that we can understand what is good about domestic abuse services in different areas of the country, and...
7th December 2021
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Law Commission recommends protection for gender critical views from “chilling effect”
The Law Commission today released its report and recommendations on hate-crime legislation. It recommends extending hate-crime laws but calls for specific protection from prosecution for gender-critical views. The Commission explicitly disagreed with Stonewall and GIRES (the Gender Identity Research and Education Society), which had said that there should not be...
7th December 2021
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Conversion therapy: the path to good law
Barrister Naomi Cunningham’s talk at the Middle Temple LGBTQ+ Forum Inaugural Annual Dinner
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EHRC – submission to consultation on their strategic plan
Our letter to Marcial Boo, Head of Equality and Human Rights Commission, asking for urgent action.
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Sex and gender: belief and agnosticism after Forstater
The August 2021 edition of The Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) Briefing features a very helpful article by Akua Reindorf of Cloisters on the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) Judgment in the Forstater case. She asks “Has the EAT’s decision in Forstater brought any light to the heated debate on the...
2nd August 2021
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Women’s prisons and male transgender prisoners
The ruling handed down in FDJ v SSJ in the High Court of Justice last week is further proof that UK law does not work for women. In dismissing the claim by FDJ, a woman prisoner who had suffered a sexual assault by a male prisoner while in a...
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Prejudging the transgender controversy?
Barrister Thomas Chacko of Policy Exchange, the UK’s leading think tank, explains why the Equal Treatment Bench Book needs urgent revision, based on the 2019 Employment Tribunal ruling in the Forstater case.
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Fighting for the principle of collecting data on biological sex
A guest post by MurrayBlackburnMackenzie. Scottish Parliament Public Petition: Call for signatures In early June MurrayBlackburnMackenzie (MBM) lodged a petition with the Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee. It calls on the Scottish government to require Police Scotland to accurately record the sex of people charged or convicted of rape...
27th June 2021
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Maya Forstater: One’s sex can’t change. The story of my fight to ensure that this view, held by so many, is judged “worthy of respect”.
Maya Forstater for Conservative Home
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The Times view on the Maya Forstater verdict: Right to Think
Leading article in The Times
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We are worthy of respect in a democratic society
Today, after two years of legal battles, Sex Matters co-founder Maya Forstater achieved a landmark legal ruling that looks set to change the direction of the sex and gender debates in the UK, and provide legal protection for gender-critical people against discrimination and harassment. Mr Justice Choudhury overturned an...
10th June 2021
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Maya Forstater: Woman wins tribunal appeal over transgender tweets
Doug Faulkner for BBC News
A woman who lost her job after saying that people cannot change their biological sex has won an appeal against an employment tribunal. -
Truth and reconciliation
How should the public sector leave the Stonewall Champions Scheme?
6th June 2021
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Time to #LeaveStonewall
This is the letter we have sent to the CEOs of the 850 organisations that are members of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme. Re: Leaving the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme We are writing to call on you to withdraw from the scheme, both for the sake of your own...
29th May 2021
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EHRC Chairwoman writes to Sex Matters: we have left Stonewall
This week we received welcome news in a letter from Baroness Kishwer Falkner. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is no longer part of the controversial Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme. She said that the Commission seeks to ensure that all staff enjoy “acceptance without exception”. We responded welcoming this...
23rd May 2021
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Open Letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission
A letter to Kishwer, Baroness Falkner of Margravine, Caroline Waters OBE, and the Commissioners of the Equality and Human Rights Commission
7th May 2021
