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Revision as of 08:36, 1 February 2022 edit181.64.122.127 (talk) Women's Declaration International is a group of volunteer women who are dedicated to preserving our sex-based rights. Join us in defending women and girls.Tag: Reverted← Previous edit Revision as of 17:38, 1 February 2022 edit undoAmanda A. Brant (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users2,889 edits rv vandalismTag: Manual revertNext edit →
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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 ]. It has been described as ],<ref name=PN>{{cite news |title=MPs urged by anti-trans ‘women’s rights’ group to eliminate ‘transgenderism’ and scrap Gender Recognition Act |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/01/27/womens-human-rights-campaign-gender-recognition-act-inquiry-trans-transphobia/ |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=]}}</ref><ref name=Vice /><ref>{{cite news |title=Atheist Richard Dawkins swings to anti-trans right in grasp at broader intellectual relevance |url=https://religiondispatches.org/atheist-richard-dawkins-swings-to-anti-trans-right-in-grasp-at-broader-intellectual-relevance/ |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=Religion Dispatches}}</ref><ref name=equity>{{cite web |title=What Remains of the Trump Administration’s Anti-Human Rights Multilateralism? |url=https://equityfwd.org/what-remains-trump-administrations-anti-human-rights-multilateralism |publisher=Equity Forward |access-date=24 December 2021 |quote=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.”}}</ref> ],<ref name=AWID /><ref>{{cite news |title=The Unholy Alliance of Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists and the Right Wing |url=https://jezebel.com/the-unholy-alliance-of-trans-exclusionary-radical-femin-1834120309 |access-date=3 December 2021 |work=]}}</ref> ] (TERF).<ref name=ctvnews>{{cite news |title='Rights aren't a competition': Anti-trans hate is on the rise in Canada, activists and advocates say |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/rights-aren-t-a-competition-anti-trans-hate-is-on-the-rise-in-canada-activists-and-advocates-say-1.5530155 |access-date=4 December 2021 |publisher=]}}</ref><ref name=AntiHate />
The '''Women's Declaration International''' (WDI) is an advocacy group founded in the ].


==History and views==
Women's Declaration International is a group of volunteer women who are dedicated to preserving our sex-based rights. Join us in defending women and girls.
The Women's Human Rights Campaign (WHRC) was founded by ] and Heather Brunskell-Evans in 2019.<ref name=PN /> Brunskell-Evans had been sacked from the ] the previous year as a result of her views on transgender people,<ref>{{cite news |title=Women’s Equality Party sacks official who called parents of transgender kids ‘abusive’ |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/02/21/womens-equality-party-sacks-official-who-called-parents-of-transgender-kids-abusive/ |access-date=3 December 2021 |work=]}}</ref> while Jeffreys has said trans women are "parasitic."<ref name=PN2 /><ref>{{cite news |title=Anti-trans activists hit out at ‘parasitic’ trans people at event in Parliament |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/03/15/anti-trans-activists-hit-out-at-parasitic-trans-people-at-event-in-parliament/ |access-date=4 December 2021 |work=]}}</ref><ref name=Network />


According to '']'' the group has promoted ] and false information.<ref name=Vice>{{cite news |title=The Anti-Trans 'Gender-Critical' Movement Is Overflowing with Bullshit |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7dm53/gender-critical-movement-misinformation |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=]}}</ref> The ] (AWID) has described WHRC as a ] 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."<ref name=AWID>{{cite web |title=Trojan horses in human rights spaces: anti-rights discourses, tactics and their convergences with trans-exclusionary feminists |url=https://www.awid.org/news-and-analysis/trojan-horses-human-rights-spaces |publisher=] |access-date=2 December 2021}}</ref> The ] described WHRC as a group "seeking to stigmatise and discriminate against trans women."<ref>{{cite news |title=Feminists warn of blurred lines ‘between free speech and hate speech’ on trans people ahead of parliament event |url=https://sourcenews.scot/feminists-warn-of-blurred-lines-between-free-speech-and-hate-speech-on-trans-people-ahead-of-parliament-event/ |access-date=4 December 2021 |work=Source |publisher=]}}</ref> The ] described WHRC as "an extreme anti-trans group" and "a key point of convergence" between ] feminism and the ].<ref name=Network>{{cite web |last1=Moore |first1=Mallory |title=Transphobic Feminism and Far Right Activism Rapidly Converging |url=https://transsafety.network/posts/gcs-and-the-right/ |publisher=]|access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref> Equity Forward discussed WHRC in the context of the ]’s "anti-human rights multilateralism" and described it as anti-trans.<ref name=equity /> The ] described WHRC as a "] project."<ref name=AntiHate>{{cite web |title='The hill I am prepared to die on': the fight against trans women in Alberta |url=https://www.antihate.ca/the_fight_against_trans_women_in_alberta |publisher=] |access-date=1 January 2022}}</ref>
WDI re-affirm the sex-based rights of women and girls.


In December 2021, the group changed its name to "Women's Declaration International."<ref>{{cite web |title=Filing history |url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12039415/filing-history |publisher=Companies House |access-date=1 January 2022}}</ref>
WDI reaffirm motherhood as an exclusively female status.
WDI reaffirm women's and girls rights to physical and reproductive integrity and oppose their exploitation through surrogacy and related practices.
WDI reaffirm women's rights to freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association, and political participation.
WDI reaffirm women's rights to fair play in sports.
WDI reaffirm the need to end violence against women and girls, and to protect rights of children.


===Declaration on "sex-based rights"===
'''Introduction''' <ref>https://www.womensdeclaration.com/en/</ref>
The group is known for publishing a declaration on "]" co-authored by Jeffreys and Brunskell-Evans and has called for the "elimination" of "transgenderism" and for the UK to scrap the ].<ref name=PN /><ref>{{cite news |title=Labour shadow equalities minister Taiwo Owatemi systematically condemns LGB Alliance |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/10/14/kathleen-stock-labour-taiwo-owatemi/ |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=]}}</ref> ], executive director of the feminist policy organisation ], 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."<ref name=PN2>{{cite news |title=MSPs invite academic who brands trans women ‘parasites’ to speak on Transgender Day of Remembrance |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/11/20/trans-day-remembrance-anti-trans-joan-mcalpine-sheila-jeffreys-scottish-parliament-snp-labour/ |access-date=4 December 2021 |work=]}}</ref> She further said that WHRC appears to see "rights as a rhetorical device with which to stigmatise minority groups."<ref name=scotsman /> The declaration was described by the ] as anti-trans, by the Scottish Trans Alliance as focused "almost entirely on denying the reality of trans people's lives" and as ].<ref name=scotsman>{{cite news |title=Women's rights declaration sparks accusations of discrimination |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/womens-rights-declaration-sparks-accusations-discrimination-2509098 |access-date=3 December 2021 |work=]}}</ref> The ] said that the "'sex-based' rhetoric misuses concepts of sex and gender to push a deeply discriminatory agenda."<ref name=AWID /> 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."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Duffy |first1=Sandra |title=An International Human Rights Law Analysis of the WHRC Declaration |url=https://sandraduffy.wordpress.com/2021/10/26/an-international-human-rights-law-analysis-of-the-whrc-declaration/ |access-date=4 December 2021}}</ref> ], who resigned from her position at the ] following accusations of transphobia, had been criticised by ]ers for signing WHRC's declaration.<ref>{{cite news |title=Kathleen Stock resigns: Trans students accuse Sussex Uni of depicting them as ‘powerful political operators’ |url=https://inews.co.uk/news/education/kathleen-stock-trans-transgender-students-sussex-university-powerful-political-operators-1262958 |access-date=4 December 2021 |work=iNews}}</ref> WHRC subsequently released a joint statement together with the ] in support of Stock.<ref>{{cite news |title=Universities union backs trans rights in row over anti-trans professor Kathleen Stock |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/10/14/universities-union-backs-trans-rights-in-row-over-anti-trans-professor-kathleen-stock/ |access-date=2 December 2021 |work=]}}</ref>


==See also==
This Declaration reaffirms the sex-based rights of women which are set out in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979 (CEDAW).
{{Portal box|LGBT}}
*]


==References==
CEDAW is a tool that has helped, and continues to help, women worldwide to successfully fight sex-based discrimination. Here is why:
{{reflist}}


]
CEDAW requires signing countries to enact policies that reject sex-based stereotypes, as well as prejudices and customs based on the idea that either sex is better or worse than the other.
]
CEDAW affirms "gender" means the roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes a society considers appropriate for either sex.

CEDAW affirms gender is socially constructed, learned, and performed, not innate or essential.
However, the UN recently changed references to "sex" with "gender" in its documents, strategies, and actions. The concept of ‘gender identity’ has been incorporated into many influential international human rights documents. This undermines women's sex-based rights and CEDAW's mission.

'''Articles of the Declaration'''

1. Women's rights are based on their sex
Sex is the physical and biological characteristics that distinguish males from females. Women and girls' rights should be based on sex, not "gender identity".

2. Motherhood is an exclusively female status
Maternal rights and services are based on women's unique, sex-based capacity to gestate and give birth to children. These rights and services, and the word "mother" itself should stay reserved for persons of the female sex.

3. Physical and reproductive integrity
Women have the right to control their fertility. The reproductive rights of women and girls, and their access to reproductive services, should be upheld. Forced pregnancies, surrogate motherhood, and medical research aimed at enabling men to gestate and give birth to children are to be eliminated.

4. Freedom of opinion and expression
Women have the right to hold opinions without interference. This should include the right to hold and express opinions about ‘gender identity’ without being subject to harassment, prosecution or punishment.

5. Peaceful assembly and association
Women have a right to peaceful assembly and a freedom of association. This should include the right to assemble and associate based on their sex. Lesbians should have a right to assemble and associate on the basis of their sexual orientation. Women's assemblies and associations should not have to include men who claim to have female ‘gender identities’.

6. Political participation
There are opportunities and protections that were specifically created to help women achieve equal status with men, such as participation quotas. These opportunities and protections should apply only to persons of the female sex and shall not include men who claim to have female ‘gender identities’.

7. Participation in sports and physical education
Women and girls are objectively physically different from men and boys in ways other than reproductive capacity. For women and girls to have equitable opportunities in sports, certain sports activities must remain single-sex.

8. Elimination of violence against women
To fight violence against women and girls, single-sex victim support services, including rape crisis centres and domestic violence shelters, should remain single-sex. In order to create effective policies to eliminate sex-based violence, we need accurate data and statistics about who the victims and perpetrators are, including their sex.

9. Protection of the rights of the child
Children should receive accurate information about human biology and reproduction, and not gender stereotyping through their education. Children should not be subjected to the use of drugs and surgery for ‘gender reassignment’.

Revision as of 17:38, 1 February 2022

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

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.
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