The UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls

The SNP will simply ignore the rapporteur.

A leading UN official has condemned the SNP’s gender recognition reforms as posing a danger to women and urged Scottish ministers to postpone the legislation.

In a 4,500-word letter to the UK government Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, appealed to Sturgeon to allow “sufficient time to complete a thorough assessment of all foreseeable consequences”.

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill is set to be enacted by Christmas, though it was introduced at Holyrood only last month. It aims to make it easier for trans people to switch gender through “self-ID” and by lowering the age limit from 18 to 16.

I’ll never understand the obstinate, determined recklessness of this.

Alsalem amplified many of the concerns raised by campaigners. She said: “Such proposals would potentially open the door for violent males who identify as men to abuse the process of acquiring a GRC and the rights associated with it. This presents potential risks to the safety of women in all their diversity.”

I would say “will inevitably” rather than “would potentially.” Why wouldn’t violent men take advantage of such a wide-open door?

Alsalem said the consultation on the bill had been insufficiently fair and inclusive. She added that although a Holyrood committee had listened to the voices of trans women, she was concerned that the same MSPs had told five survivors of male violence they “did not have time to see them and to put their objections in writing”.

Men who say they are women matter, women don’t matter. How did this happen?

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