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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. It has been described as anti-trans, trans-exclusionary, and trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF).

History and views

The Women's Human Rights Campaign (WHRC) was founded by Sheila Jeffreys and Heather Brunskell-Evans in 2019. Brunskell-Evans had been sacked from the Women's Equality Party the previous year as a result of her views on transgender people, while Jeffreys has said trans women are "parasitic."

According to Vice the group has promoted conspiracy theories and false information. 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." The Scottish Women's Aid described WHRC as a group "seeking to stigmatise and discriminate against trans women." The Trans Safety Network described WHRC as "an extreme anti-trans group" and "a key point of convergence" between transphobic feminism and the far right. Equity Forward discussed WHRC in the context of the Trump administration’s "anti-human rights multilateralism" and described it as anti-trans. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network described WHRC as a "TERF project."

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

Declaration on "sex-based rights"

The group is known for publishing a declaration on "sex-based rights" 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. Emma Ritch, executive director of the feminist policy organisation Engender, said that "when 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." She further said that WHRC appears to see "rights as a rhetorical device with which to stigmatise minority groups." 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. 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." 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." Kathleen Stock, who resigned from her position at the University of Sussex following accusations of transphobia, had been criticised by student protesters for signing WHRC's declaration. WHRC subsequently released a joint statement together with the Women's Liberation Front in support of Stock.

See also

• LGB Alliance

References

1. ^ "MPs urged by anti-trans 'women's rights' group to eliminate 'transgenderism' and scrap Gender Recognition Act". Pink News. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
2. ^ "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. ^ "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. ^ "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. ^ "'The hill I am prepared to die on': the fight against trans women in Alberta". Canadian Anti-Hate Network. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
9. "Women's Equality Party sacks official who called parents of transgender kids 'abusive'". Pink News. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
10. ^ "MSPs invite academic who brands trans women 'parasites' to speak on Transgender Day of Remembrance". Pink News. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
11. "Anti-trans activists hit out at 'parasitic' trans people at event in Parliament". Pink News. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
12. ^ Moore, Mallory. "Transphobic Feminism and Far Right Activism Rapidly Converging". Trans Safety Network. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
13. "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.
14. "Filing history". Companies House. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
15. "Labour shadow equalities minister Taiwo Owatemi systematically condemns LGB Alliance". Pink News. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
16. ^ "Women's rights declaration sparks accusations of discrimination". The Scotsman. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
17. Duffy, Sandra. "An International Human Rights Law Analysis of the WHRC Declaration". Retrieved 4 December 2021.
18. "Kathleen Stock resigns: Trans students accuse Sussex Uni of depicting them as 'powerful political operators'". iNews. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
19. "Universities union backs trans rights in row over anti-trans professor Kathleen Stock". Pink News. Retrieved 2 December 2021.

• Organisations that oppose transgender rights in the United Kingdom
• 2019 establishments in the United Kingdom