Restore the impartiality of the AHRC

The Australian Human Rights Commission was established as a non-partisan agency to scaffold our nation as a tolerant democracy.
We are concerned that the Commission is now unwittingly colluding with an attack on women’s hard-fought-for rights to their own sex-based spaces, places, awards and data collections.In Australia, as overseas, women who defend their sex-based rights or state basic biological facts:• are being harassed and vilified;
• are subjected to vexatious lawsuits;
• are receiving death and rape threats; and
• face loss of employment.Our very freedom of expression, one of the hallmarks of a robust democracy, is now under threat.We are concerned that our national Human Rights Commission is participating in priming us for the authoritarianism from which the Commission was established to protect us.This open letter to the AHRC seeks to help it re-align with the values upon which it was founded.


Is the Australian Human Rights Commission conducting
a witch-hunt?

Open Letter to the Australian Human Rights Commission

We are a group of civil society organisations, health practitioners, researchers, lawyers, writers and individuals, people of faith and atheists, from across the political spectrum.We are writing to express our deep alarm at the Australian Human Rights Commission’s current project aimed at “mapping” alleged threats to the rights of trans and gender diverse (TGD) people. We believe the language used in the project’s call for submissions represents an attack on the freedom of speech, association, and political activity of all Australians and unacceptably compromises the Commission’s purpose, independence and impartiality.The premise in the call for submissions is that there are existing and emerging threats to TGD people’s human rights from “anti-trans mobilisation” and “extremist” groups spreading “dis- and misinformation”. In our view this signals the intent to conduct a biased, evidence-excluding investigation with a predetermined outcome. It is a disturbing example of a government organisation meant to promote all human rights being captured by a particular interest group.The aim of this interest group and thus the project is to silence women’s rights groups, LGB organisations, faith groups and individuals who have raised concerns about the impact of “gender ideology” on the safety and rights of women and children, as well as the rapidly expanding robust research that shows the lifelong harms perpetrated against young people from medicalised transition.The concept of gender identity is now firmly ensconced in public life with little consultation or consideration of its impact, or intersection with other groups. Australian women and girls are already being forced to share intimate spaces (changerooms, sleeping arrangements on school excursions, prisons, hospital facilities and women’s refuges) with trans-identified males.Despite evidence of the impact of gender identity on other groups, the AHRC states that only “subject-matter experts” on trans and gender diverse experiences are invited to make submissions, creating an echo chamber in which to confirm the project’s premise. The result will be the use of a government agency to compile a blacklist of people and groups deemed “anti-trans”, with no right of reply.The AHRC has no mandate to spend taxpayers’ money on witch-hunts.We call on the Commission to:
• Identify what are defined as “threats” to TGD human rights for the purpose of this project and what evidence is relied upon for this definition.
• Ensure the project accepts submissions from all those affected and forms its report and recommendations to reflect all evidence.
• Confirm that women in Australia will continue to have the right to speak out about the impact of the loss of single sex spaces, sports and services.We urge the Commission to uphold its integrity, engage in open dialogue on the basis of credible evidence, and consider diverse perspectives within our community, so that the human rights of all are safeguarded without compromising essential freedoms.

Signatories

  • Australian Feminists for Women’s Rights (Australia)

  • Biological Reality Australia (Australia)

  • Coalition of Activist Lesbians Inc (Australia)

  • Declaration of Biological Truth Australia (Australia)

  • Fair Game (Australia)

  • Feminist Legal Clinic (Australia)

  • Genspect Australia (Australia)

  • IWD Brisbane Meanjin (Australia)

  • Lesbian Action Group Vic Inc (Australia)

  • LGB Alliance Australia (Australia)

  • North Coast Feminists (Australia)

  • Parents of Adolescents with Gender Distress–Victoria (Australia)

  • Save Women’s Sport Australasia (Australia)

  • Spinifex Press (Australia)

  • Victorian Women’s Guild (Australia)

  • Women’s Action Group (Australia)

  • Women’s Declaration International (Intl.)

  • Women’s Declaration International–Australia (Australia)

  • Women’s Forum Australia (Australia)

  • Women Speak Tasmania (Australia)

  • Woman Up Queensland (Australia)

  • Dr Petra Bueskens, academic and psychotherapist (Australia)

  • Dr Dianna Kenny, psychologist and psychotherapist (Australia)

  • Dr Jillian Spencer, child and adolescent psychiatrist (Australia)

  • Dr Maja Bowen (UK)

  • Clive Hamilton AM, Professor of public ethics (Australia)

  • Professor Richard Dawkins (UK)

  • Emeritus Professor Bronwyn Winter (Australia)

  • Emeritus Professor Madeleine Beekman, evolutionary biologist (Australia)

  • Associate Professor Neil Foster (Australia)

  • Dr Libby Connors, retired academic and author (Australia)

  • Dr Geoff Holloway, United Tasmania Group (Australia)

  • Julie Bindel, journalist and feminist campaigner (UK)

  • Helen Joyce, journalist (UK)

  • Michael Sherlock, atheist author and human rights activist (Australia)

  • Fraser Anderson (Australia)

  • Pam Atkins (Australia)

  • Kathy Chambers (Australia)

  • Phil Dye (Australia)

  • Stassja Frei (Australia)

  • Judith Hunter (Australia)

  • Isla MacGregor (Australia)

  • Dr Barbara Mattar (Australia)

  • Madeleine Munzer (Australia)

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  • Denise Weelands (Australia)

  • Sandra Croft (UK)

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