A new United Nations report has warned that governments are failing to uphold legal protections for women and girls, particularly in the face of rising pressures to adopt trans ideology.
The report, delivered by Reem Alsalem, the U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, was presented at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva last week. It calls on countries to legally define the terms “women” and “girls” as biological females and reject efforts to delink sex from biology.
Titled “Sex-based violence against women and girls: new frontiers and emerging issues,” it acknowledges that the growing international movement to remove sex-specific language from law and policy undermines protections against sex-based violence, legal advocacy group ADF International reported.
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Drawing on contributions from 180 stakeholders, the report cites cases of states permitting children to undergo medical and social transition as part of so-called gender reassignment, describing such interventions as violations of children’s rights.
It states that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries on minors have “long-lasting and harmful consequences,” including infertility, early menopause, sexual dysfunction and psychological distress.
“The long-lasting and harmful consequences of social and medical transitioning of children, including girls, are being increasingly documented,” it states. “Allowing children access to such procedures not only violates their right to safety, security and freedom from violence, but also disregards their human right to the highest standards of health and goes against their best interests.”
Alsalem has called for an outright ban on medical and social gender transition for children and urged governments to reaffirm their obligations under international human rights treaties, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
She said there was a need to protect single-sex spaces in areas like healthcare and prisons, arguing that diluting legal definitions of sex can lead to increased vulnerability for women and girls.
The report comes amid a wave of global policy changes.
Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Hungary and Slovakia are among the countries that have implemented legal or administrative restrictions on gender transition procedures for minors.
In Latin America, Brazil and Argentina have taken similar steps. Most recently, Chile enacted a ban on child gender transition last month.
In the United States, the Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti upheld a Tennessee law prohibiting medical transition procedures for minors. The ruling aligned with a growing number of court and legislative decisions seeking to limit so-called gender-affirming interventions for children.
In the United Kingdom, the closure of London’s Tavistock Clinic followed the release of the Cass Review, which concluded that evidence supporting “gender-affirming treatment” for youth was weak. The clinic, which had been the country’s main provider of body-disfiguring drugs and procedures, came under scrutiny over its clinical practices and lack of long-term data.
“This report delivers a timely and urgent message as international awareness solidifies around the dangerous human rights implications of gender ideology, especially its impact on the well-being and healthy development of children,” said Giorgio Mazzoli, director of U.N. Advocacy at ADF International.
Quoting Alsalem’s statement to the Human Rights Council, he said: “You cannot protect what you cannot define.”
