Question 1

WRN Responds to NHS Children and Young People's Gender Service Specification Consultation

Accepted Answer

WRN Responds to the NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Service Specification consultation

Question 2

Press release: WRN NI Responds to ECNI FWS Consultation

Accepted Answer

Press release: WRN NI Responds to ECNI FWS Consultation, Demanding ECNI Uphold the Law and Protect Women’s Rights

Question 3

WRN NI submission on RSE in Northern Ireland

Accepted Answer

The Women’s Rights Network Northern Ireland (WRN NI) submission to the Committee for Education on Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) in Northern Ireland.

Press release

Submission

Question 4

WRN NI Statement on BBC Correction on The State of Us Podcast

Question 5

WRN NI Response to Equality Commission of Northern Ireland (ECNI) statement on definition of woman in law

Accepted Answer

The Women's Rights Network Northern Ireland (WRN NI) responds to the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland (ECNI) statement on the definition of a woman in law here.

Question 6

WRN NI Submission to Executive Office Committee - Response to Committee Questions

Accepted Answer

The Women's Rights Network Northern Ireland (WRN NI) responds to questions raised at the evidence session.

Question 7

Statement on Supreme Court Ruling - For Women Scotland vs Scottish Government

Question 8

WRN NI letter to Chief Commissioner of Equality Commission of Northern Ireland

Accepted Answer

WRN NI have written to the Chief Commissioner of the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland to ask for intervention on the correct application of the law around single sex spaces.

Question 9

WRN NI Submision to Executive Office Committee

Accepted Answer

The Women’s Rights Network Northern Ireland (WRN NI) gave evidence to The Executive  Office Committee on the Inquiry into Gaps in Equality Legislation.

WRN NI Submission:

Press Release:

Opening Statement:

Question 10

Akua Reindorf KC legal advice regarding Manchester City Council

Accepted Answer

Manchester City Council (MCC) passed a motion/resolution with the title, ‘Trans Rights Are Human Rights’, declaring that ‘trans men are men, trans women are women, non-binary people are non-binary and trans rights are human rights’. Akua Reindorf KC concludes that MCC did not comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in applying this motion to Council policies and services and is therefore at risk of acting unlawfully. Her advice is available to download below, along with other relevant documents.

See our blog post for full details: A Captured Council(https://www.womensrights.network/post/a-captured-council-manchester-city-council-refuses-to-protect-women-s-single-sex-services)

Question 11

WRN Response to UNSRVAW

Accepted Answer

Response from WRN UK, to call for input to the report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls to the HRC Forms of sex-based violence against women and girls: new frontiers and emerging issues.

Question 12

TUC - Motion calling for de-criminalisation of the sex trade

Accepted Answer

WRN statement on motions calling for the de-criminalisation of the sex trade:

WRN letter to Annette Mansell-Green Chair, Women’s TUC Committee 
26 January 2025:

Read about Prostitution and Its Impact on Women (https://www.womensrights.network/post/prostitution-and-its-impact-on-women)in a blog post by Nordic Model Now.

Call to Action:

Write to the TUC email info@tuc.org.uk (mailto:info@tuc.org.uk)and get these awful motions off the table!

WRN wrote a thread on this on X w(https://x.com/WomensRightsNet/status/1879282590835679305)hich is copied below for those not on X.

WRN has been alerted by several of our members to two draft motions intended to go to the TUC Women’s Conference in March, calling for the complete decriminalisation of the sex trade. Although the exact wording is not yet public, we understand that this means that ALL aspects of the industry would be legalised – pimping, brothels, advertising, trafficking. No age limits are specified.

The two unions calling for this motion to go through are the @GMB_union and @ASLEFunion. The GMB is of course the union described by a former regional president as “riddled with misogyny”(https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/09/gmb-union-riddled-with-misogyny-and-cronyism-says-former-regional-chief). ASLEF is the union in which only 6.5% of train drivers are women. It seems no coincidence that these are the unions to call for legalisation of sexual exploitation of women.
Prostitution is exploitation of women by men. It is men using (usually young) women as objects, for their own pleasure, demanding that whatever they want be provided, regardless of how unpleasant, degrading or harmful that is for the woman. Please see our blog Prostitution and it’s impact on women.(https://www.womensrights.network/post/prostitution-and-its-impact-on-women) 
In the context of public concern about the systematic exploitation of young girls by rape gangs, and of the horrific story of Gisele Pelicot, raped by large numbers of her neighbours, it is astonishing that these unions are making this call and, to add to the insult, to the Women’s Committee. This motion is in direct opposition to their stated aims (https://www.tuc.org.uk/committee-statements-tuc-womens-conference#violence)of ending ‘gender based violence.’

For an insight into the reality of the legalised sex trade have a look at some of the customer reviews from German punters c(https://dieunsichtbarenmaenner.wordpress.com/category/boundary-complaints/)ollated by @EllyArrow.  These are extremely disturbing and you’ll need a strong stomach to read them all. 
We know from experience of failed projects like the ‘Managed zone for prostitution’(https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/so-long-to-leeds-s-appalling-prostitution-zone/) in Leeds that decriminalising prostitution leads to all women and girls being more unsafe.

WRN considers that these draft motions conflict fundamentally with the TUC’s core values, its position on male violence against women, on modern slavery and on sexual harassment.

Decriminalising prostitution does nothing to help women escape poverty and exploitation which ought to be the fundamental goals of the trade union movement.

Julie Bindel @bindelj, a lifelong campaigner on the left against prostitution, spells out the dangers of decriminalisation in this article and, oh look, it’s the GMB again, (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/sex-workers-employment-rights-prostitution/)back in 2002 pushing the notion that so called ‘sex work’ is just like any other employment.

If our TU brethren won’t listen to the voices of women perhaps they’ll listen t(https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/detective-calls-ban-buying-sex-25253555)o a former Detective Superintendent, Alan Caton, who investigated the murders of five women in Ipswich.

We are writing to the Women’s Committee to ask for the draft motions to be held inadmissible on this basis, our members are doing the same and we call on all union members to do everything possible to oppose them. Please email info@tuc.org.uk (mailto:info@tuc.org.uk) to let them know how women feel about this betrayal.
These motions are about men’s wants, not women’s safety. They must be struck out.

Finally, we’d like @The_TUC, @ASLEFunion and @GMB_union, to consider this from Rachel Moran @RachelRMoran, a sex trade survivor and campaigner, who said:
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/50b531_3b2728a7db174ac999b1d218f27a32bb~mv2.png

Question 13

Care Inspectorate Scotland

Accepted Answer

WRN letter to Care Inspectorate Scotland setting out concerns about the ‘Guidance for children and young people’s services on the inclusion of transgender including non-binary young people’ published by the Care Inspectorate in May 2023.

Question 14

Male Breastfeeding

Accepted Answer

A statement from WRN addressing attempts to normalise male 'breastfeeding':

Read our blog post on Reflux Mum and the Fetish Feeder.(https://www.womensrights.network/post/reflux-mum-and-the-fetish-feeder)

Question 15

Letter to UNSRVAW

Accepted Answer

The WRN is proud to have co-signed this letter to the UN Special Rapporteur for Violence Against Women regarding the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill:

Question 16

WRN EHRC Guidelines

Accepted Answer

WRN welcomes new human rights guidance which protects single-sex spaces. Read our press release:

View the EHRC Guidelines.(https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/media-centre/news/guidance-published-providers-single-sex-services)

Question 17

No Males in Female Jails

Accepted Answer

WRN statement on girls being placed in mixed sex facilities:

Read about the unannounced inspection of HM Young Offender Institution Wetherby (https://www.womensrights.network/post/get-those-girls-out-of-wetherby-now)in our blog post.

Question 18

WRN IPSO Submission

Accepted Answer

The WRN has taken part in a consultation by the press regulator IPSO to update its guidance on reporting of transgender issues Gender Identity Ideology.
 
Learn more about the WRN’s position and what to do if you think a media outlet has got its coverage wrong.
 
If you are a working journalist and have a media inquiry, please email our Press Team.(mailto:wrnpress@gmail.com)

You can read our submission here:

IPSO Update
 
Most newspapers and magazines in the UK are members of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) and follow its Editors’ Code and guidance for editors and journalists. New guidance on reporting transgender issues is about to be published.
 
The current guidance was written in 2016 and is not fit for purpose — as headlines such as ‘Woman exposes penis…” and reporters being directed to call rapists women have shown.
 
Last year, Dr Amy Binns and Sophie Arnold — lecturers in journalism at the University of Central Lancashire — published a paper looking at court reporting specifically. This detailed problems with the current guidelines and proposed remedies. 
 
The paper was withdrawn from the university’s website after complaints that it was ‘transphobic’, but you can read it in full here.(https://www.womensrights.network/_files/ugd/18f02a_fb7842f6aa5d444f8f26a0372e5feb2a.pdf) 
 
The WRN was one of a number of groups the UCLan researchers invited to make a submission, which you can read in full here.(https://www.womensrights.network/_files/ugd/18f02a_9e49468500cc4ae280053c9565daf17c.pdf)
 
We were subsequently contacted by IPSO — which regulates most of the newspapers and magazines in the UK — to take part in its consultation to update its guidance on transgender reporting to editors and journalists. You can read our submission by downloading the document above.
 
IPSO’s guidance is due now.
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/50b531_534bf266aa1f4d71bceab57f15456f8f~mv2.jpg
Headline and Image: Tom Morton, The News, 27 Sept 2022
(https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/crime/leigh-park-woman-jailed-for-child-abuse-carried-out-when-she-was-a-man-3858309)
​​What can you do if you think the media has got something wrong?
​
Sex Matters has set up a Bad Media Watch (https://sex-matters.org/bad-media-watch/)to log bad reporting and also has useful links on how to complain

Print Media:
 • Write a letter to the editor setting out your complaint.
 • If the publication is a member of IPSO, complain to the regulator stating referencing the relevant clause of The Editors’ Code of Practice (https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/)(Accuracy, Reporting suicide etc.)
 • The Editors’ Codebook (https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/codebook-2022-1.pdf)– The Handbook to the Editors’ Code of Practice
 
Broadcast Media: 
 • BBC: Editorial guidelines(https://www.bbc.com/editorialguidelines/guidelines)
 • BBC: Complaints(https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints)
 • Ofcom: Broadcasting code(https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code)
 • Ofcom: Broadcast complaints(https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCSLEStandardsComplaints)
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/50b531_a3e3538341d6463dabbefbf3006f5225~mv2.png
Headline and Image:Daily Mail 3 Feb 2023(https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11710215/Transgender-woman-exposed-penis-testicles-police-fined-320.html)

Question 19

Family Justice Council Guidance: WRN Statement

Accepted Answer

WRN Statement (https://a86851fb-c226-400d-9bf4-401a61daaa40.usrfiles.com/ugd/a86851_c3df586be99146bba6430403bd87a538.pdf)on the Family Justice Council Guidance on responding to a child’s unexplained reluctance reluctance, resistance or refusal to spend time with a parent and allegations of alienating behaviour (December 2024)

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Family-Justice-Council-Guidance-on-responding-to-allegations-of-alienating-behaviour-2024-1-1.pdf(https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Family-Justice-Council-Guidance-on-responding-to-allegations-of-alienating-behaviour-2024-1-1.pdf)

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