Hijacking the language of human rights to push gender identity demands
It’s not a human right to compel others to use the “preferred pronouns” of someone who is claiming to be of the opposite sex or “non-binary”. In fact freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, recognised by the UNHRC, subject to a few restrictions
With kind permission of The Irish Catholic which first published this on June 11th 2026
Human rights in Ireland are due to be examined again in the upcoming periodic review by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) later this year.
Several organisations have now published their submissions to the Council including one by 23 NGOs from the LGBTQI+ sector, co-authored by TENI, the Transgender Equality Network Ireland, LGBT Ireland and Belong To – LGBTQ+ Youth Ireland.
But making a submission to a human rights body doesn’t mean that their complaints have anything to do with human rights. Many of their policy demands even seek to encroach on the rights of others.
For example, our equality legislation currently permits separate toilets for men and women. The activists are seeking “..measures to ensure transgender, non-binary, and intersex people are fully protected under all equality legislation.” If men who claim to have a female gender identity are allowed to use women’s facilities this will affect the safety and dignity of women and girls. No man can claim it’s a human right to be allowed to use women’s facilities.
When it comes to education the group submission recommends that guidelines for LGBTQI+ post-primary students in school include “guidance on name/pronoun usage and access to facilities, to be implemented across all schools regardless of patron ethos.” It’s not a human right to compel others to use the “preferred pronouns” of someone who is claiming to be of the opposite sex or “non-binary”. In fact freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, recognised by the UNHRC, subject to a few restrictions. And should schoolchildren have the right to use the toilets of the opposite sex?
In their submission the 23 groups “note with particular concern that intersex, transgender and non-binary people are systemically failed in terms of legal protections, recognition and access to healthcare”. What the activists call “intersex” are those with one or 40 or so genetic Differences in Sex Development (DSDs) which affect a tiny number of men or women. Klinefelter syndrome for example affects men whereas MRKH syndrome affects women. What’s more, people with a DSD have frequently asked not to be used by transactivists. Those who call themselves “non-binary” are also either male or female. And since those who call themselves transgender insist there’s nothing wrong with them, why do they need hormones as “healthcare”?
Not only is language being hijacked by gender ideology but the taxpayer is unwittingly paying for this. TENI received almost half of its funding in 2024 from Government sources with another 30% coming from outside Ireland. The corresponding figures for LGBT Ireland was almost 75% and 35% for BeLonG To from the State.
These heavily State funded groups are lobbying the UN which will then make recommendations to our Government. In the last periodic review of Ireland five years ago no less than 221 recommendations were accepted out of 260 and that was a 26% increase from the previous periodic review. There’s nothing democratic in this closed loop system of State funded groups making policy demands which the Government may accept and then seek to implement.
Meanwhile the rights of women and girls are being affected here thanks to gender ideology. For example, the Irish Penal Reform Trust (not one of the 23 LGBTQI+ groups but which received over 50% of its income in 2024 from Government sources) doesn’t mention in its submission the fact that men with Gender Recognition Certificates have been placed in womens prisons as a result of the 2015 Gender Recognition Act. It says that the Mandela Rules oblige States to protect prisoners and their right to be free from violence, abuse and degrading treatment. It doesn’t mention that these rules also require that “in an institution which receives both men and women, the whole of the premises allocated to women shall be entirely separate;”. Three years ago a man with a Gender Recognition Certificate was also placed in a Dublin women’s refuge and assaulted a homeless woman there but we hear no complaints about this from any State funded NGO.
Last year the UN’s committee dealing with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) recommended that Ireland re-run the referendum on deleting Article 41.2 which recognises the role of women and mothers in the home from our Constitution. It was clear from this that they had simply listened to NGOs such as the NWCI (over 80% of its funding from Government sources in 2024.) With such strong opposition by the electorate at the referenda ballot box it’s hardly surprising Tánaiste Simon Harris firmly rejected that suggestion. Hopefully that UN committee was sufficiently embarrassed by the Tánaiste’s rebuke and the UNHRC will listen with a more critical ear to the demands of certain NGOs.
