Mick Hartley

The UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls has condemned the SNP’s gender recognition reforms as posing a danger to women:

Reem Alsalem’s devastating critique dismantled the approach taken by Nicola Sturgeon’s government, describing the legislation as unfair, rushed, vague and contradictory. Above all she stressed the threat to women from violent males who could abuse the proposed self-identification process to acquire a gender recognition certificate (GRC).

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.

Backed by the SNP-Green administration, the Scottish Lib Dems and some Labour MSPs, the legislation is bitterly opposed by feminist groups, who have received strong support from campaigners including JK Rowling.

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.

“The Scottish government … does not provide for any safeguarding measures to ensure that the procedure is not, as far as can be reasonably assured, abused by sexual predators and other perpetrators of violence. These include access to both single-sex spaces and gender-based spaces.”

She said evidence demonstrated “that the majority of sex offenders are male, and that persistent sex offenders will go to great lengths to gain access to those they wish to abuse”.

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”.

Why is Nicola Sturgeon so determined on this? It's going to lose her a large chunk of women's votes. She seems to have persuaded herself that this is the "progressive" way to go – and it also serves as marking a clear break with Westminster, which is heading the other way. 

All this on top of the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Scottish government does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence. Oh dear. Is time running out for the Wee Krankie?