The UK’s Supreme Court has ruled that “man”, “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to sex, not self-ID or paperwork (gender-recognition certificates). This agreed with our legal interpretation. We have published new guidance and are in the process of updating our publications to reflect the judgment. We are also working to provide answers to the questions we're hearing from supporters and the media. We will publish these as soon as possible.

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Reviewing the UK’s human rights framework

We need reliable data on sex to protect everyone's rights

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) will be reviewing the UK’s approach to human rights at its session from 10th to 28th February 2025.

This is the next stage in a process whereby the UN committee reviews the human-rights records of its member states (that is, countries). First, having invited input from organisations and charities, it sends a list of issues raised to each member state whose record is being reviewed. The member state then responds to that list. The UK government responded last summer, after the general election. The UN committee published the response and invited comment on it, ahead of the discussion at the session. 

Sex Matters’ response is here. We took the opportunity to point out that while the UK legislative framework for protection against discrimination is good, we believe it is not working as intended. 

“Confusion about the definition of the protected characteristic of sex, and the interaction with the Gender Recognition Act 2004, have led to the legislation not working adequately, and to individuals being discriminated against and harassed for expressing the ordinary view that there are two sexes and for advocating for protection of sex-based rights. This has been smeared as ‘transphobic’.”

We flagged the problem of data recording, where sex data has been conflated with or overridden by a non-scientific concept of gender identity. Without sound data on sex, monitoring progress or problems with sex discrimination becomes impossible.

We drew attention to the Data (Use and Access) Bill currently making its way through Parliament. This carries the risk of allowing sex self-ID to have official status as part of the government’s planned digital verification services. 

We illustrated the failure to protect sex-based rights in the workplace, including the freedom to advocate for those rights, and the safeguarding failures that arise when sex is replaced by gender identity for children in schools.

Our recommendations

The conclusion of our submission is:

“Overall we recommend that the UK clarifies the Equality Act 2010 and associated guidance and policies to be clear that the rights of women and men to be protected against sex discrimination are based on the ordinary conception of the two sexes. 

“This would not undermine the rights of people who identify as transgender to ‘self-determination’, but would recognise that being male or female is not a matter of self-determination but a material reality. This understanding and legal framework is critical to meet Article 3 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, CEDAW and the Istanbul Convention, as well as protecting rights of women and men secured by the European Convention on Human Rights.” 

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