Women's Declaration International

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The Women's Declaration International (WDI), formerly the Women's Human Rights Campaign (WHRC), is an advocacy group founded in the United Kingdom. The group is known for publishing a declaration on "sex-based rights" and has said that "transgenderism" is in breach of article 5 of the UN convention on eliminating discrimination against women and girls, because "the practice of transgenderism clearly falls under the article because it is based on stereotypical roles for men and women".[1] It has been described as anti-trans,[1][2][3][4] trans-exclusionary,[5][6] and trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF).[7][8]

History and views[]

The Women's Human Rights Campaign (WHRC) was founded in 2019 by a group of women including Maureen O'Hara, Sheila Jeffreys and Heather Brunskell-Evans.[9] Brunskell-Evans had been sacked from the Women's Equality Party the previous year as a result of her views on transgender people,[10] while Jeffreys has said trans women are "parasitic."[11][12][13] Jeffreys has further said, "Radical feminist theorists do not seek to make gender a bit more flexible, but to eliminate it. They are gender abolitionists, and understand gender to provide the framework and rationale for male dominance. In the radical feminist approach, masculinity is the behaviour of the male ruling class and femininity is the behaviour of the subordinate class of women. Thus gender can have no place in the egalitarian future that feminism aims to create.”[14]

The group describes itself as a female-only group and says it aims to "lobby nations to maintain language protecting women and girls on the basis of sex rather than gender or gender identity."[9]

According to Vice the group has promoted conspiracy theories and false information.[2] The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) has described WHRC as a trojan horse in human rights spaces and argued that WHRC "engages in sensationalism and fear-mongering" to "undermine and water down the progressions of human rights standards that protect the rights of trans and gender non-conforming persons."[5] The Scottish Women's Aid described WHRC as a group "seeking to stigmatise and discriminate against trans women."[15] The Trans Safety Network described WHRC as "an extreme anti-trans group".[13] Equity Forward discussed WHRC in the context of the Trump administration’s "anti-human rights multilateralism" and described it as anti-trans.[4] The Canadian Anti-Hate Network described WHRC as a "TERF project."[8]

In December 2021, the group changed its name to "Women's Declaration International."[16]

Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights[]

The group is known for publishing the Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights, a co-authored by Jeffreys and Brunskell-Evans, and has called for the "elimination" of "transgenderism" and for the UK to scrap the Gender Recognition Act.[1][17] Emma Ritch, executive director of the feminist policy organisation Engender, said that "when [the declaration] talks about violence against women, freedom of expression, and children's rights it does so entirely through the warped lens of antipathy towards trans people."[11] She further said that WHRC appears to see "rights as a rhetorical device with which to stigmatise minority groups."[18] The declaration was described by the Equality Network as anti-trans, by the Scottish Trans Alliance as focused "almost entirely on denying the reality of trans people's lives" and as transphobic.[18] The Association for Women's Rights in Development said that the "'sex-based' rhetoric misuses concepts of sex and gender to push a deeply discriminatory agenda."[5] Legal scholar and human rights expert Sandra Duffy described the declaration's concept of "sex-based rights" as "a fiction with the pretense of legality."[19] Kathleen Stock, who resigned[20] from her position at the University of Sussex following accusations of transphobia,[21] had been criticised by student protesters for signing WHRC's declaration.[22] WHRC subsequently released a joint statement together with the Women's Liberation Front in support of Stock.[23]


See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c "MPs urged by anti-trans 'women's rights' group to eliminate 'transgenderism' and scrap Gender Recognition Act". PinkNews. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  2. ^ a b "The Anti-Trans 'Gender-Critical' Movement Is Overflowing with Bullshit". Vice. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  3. ^ "Atheist Richard Dawkins swings to anti-trans right in grasp at broader intellectual relevance". Religion Dispatches. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  4. ^ a b "What Remains of the Trump Administration's Anti-Human Rights Multilateralism?". Equity Forward. Retrieved 24 December 2021. Concerningly, the anti-trans Women’s Human Rights Campaign (WHRC) held a parallel event that was permitted to be posted to CSW65’s civil society forum. This event featured numerous anti-trans “feminist” speakers and propagated WHRC’s exclusionary “Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights.”
  5. ^ a b c "Trojan horses in human rights spaces: anti-rights discourses, tactics and their convergences with trans-exclusionary feminists". Association for Women's Rights in Development. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  6. ^ "The Unholy Alliance of Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists and the Right Wing". Jezebel. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  7. ^ "'Rights aren't a competition': Anti-trans hate is on the rise in Canada, activists and advocates say". CTV News. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  8. ^ a b "'The hill I am prepared to die on': the fight against trans women in Alberta". Canadian Anti-Hate Network. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  9. ^ a b "About Women's Declaration International - Women's Declaration International". womensdeclaration.com. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  10. ^ "Women's Equality Party sacks official who called parents of transgender kids 'abusive'". PinkNews. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  11. ^ a b "MSPs invite academic who brands trans women 'parasites' to speak on Transgender Day of Remembrance". PinkNews. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  12. ^ "Anti-trans activists hit out at 'parasitic' trans people at event in Parliament". PinkNews. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  13. ^ a b Moore, Mallory. "Transphobic Feminism and Far Right Activism Rapidly Converging". . Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  14. ^ Jeffreys, Sheila (2014). Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415539401.
  15. ^ "Feminists warn of blurred lines 'between free speech and hate speech' on trans people ahead of parliament event". Source. Common Weal. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  16. ^ "Filing history". Companies House. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  17. ^ "Labour shadow equalities minister Taiwo Owatemi systematically condemns LGB Alliance". PinkNews. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  18. ^ a b "Women's rights declaration sparks accusations of discrimination". The Scotsman. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  19. ^ Duffy, Sandra. "An International Human Rights Law Analysis of the WHRC Declaration". Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  20. ^ Adams, Richard. "Kathleen Stock says she quit university post over 'medieval' ostracism 3 November 2021". theguardian.com. Guardian. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  21. ^ "Kathleen Stock: I won't be silenced". UnHerd. 2021-11-04. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  22. ^ "Kathleen Stock resigns: Trans students accuse Sussex Uni of depicting them as 'powerful political operators'". iNews. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  23. ^ "Universities union backs trans rights in row over anti-trans professor Kathleen Stock". PinkNews. Retrieved 2 December 2021.

External links[]

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