THE boss of Good Law Project has hit out after a human rights commissioner delivered a “serious bollocking” over the treatment of transgender people in the UK.
On Tuesday, Europe’s human rights watchdog warned that trans people must not be left in an unacceptable “intermediate zone” in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on gender.
Michael O’Flaherty, the human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, wrote to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and MPs setting out his concerns that guidance brought in after the Supreme Court judgment may be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
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The Supreme Court, in a case brought by For Women Scotland (FWS), ruled that women are defined by biological sex under the Equality Act 2010. The Council of Europe oversees the ECHR, and O’Flaherty’s role is to identify potential shortcomings in human rights law among signatories to the convention.
O’Flaherty wrote: “It should be ensured that steps taken towards implementing the Supreme Court judgment avoid a situation where a person’s legal gender recognition is voided of practical meaning, to the extent that it leaves trans people in an unacceptable ‘intermediate zone’.”
In response, Good Law Project director Jolyon Maughan said that the UK had been given a “serious bollocking” by O’Flaherty.
“The commissioner points out that the Supreme Court in its For ‘some’ Women Scotland decision ignored human rights, which breaches its legal obligations,” he said in a video posted on X/Twitter.
“The commissioner's worried about the political vacuum on the issue, and echoing Lucy Powell, who is running to be deputy leader of the Labour Party , he calls for parliament to be involved.
"Are we going to abandon people whenever the rightwing press demands it?" pic.twitter.com/CwSbAf7FKl
— Good Law Project (@GoodLawProject) October 14, 2025
“He's very worried that we're pushing trans people into an intermediate zone, a so-called third sex, that's how the case law describes it, which jeopardises people's rights to be treated with dignity and to be able to participate in all areas of normal life.
“And he's very, very concerned, and we should all be very concerned, about measures which oblige trans people to out themselves in an increasingly transphobic world.
“It increases your vulnerability if you're trans to harassment, to abuse, and to violence as well.”
Maughan added that “none of this should be a surprise” for anyone who had been paying attention to the fallout from the Supreme Court ruling.
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“It's abundantly clear to everybody who cares to be interested that the direction of travel places the United Kingdom in breach of its obligations under the European Convention for Human Rights,” he said.
“And I say to the Prime Minister this: we are at a crossroads.
“Are we going to be a nation that respects our human rights obligations, or are we going to abandon people whenever the right wing press demands it – immigrants, trans people, who's next Sir Keir?”
We previously told how interim guidance published by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) banned transgender people from bathrooms of their acquired gender.
The equalities watchdog’s full guidance, including on trans people’s use of certain spaces, is currently under consideration by the Government after being submitted to equalities minister Bridget Phillipson last month.
Once ministerial approval is granted, the UK Government must lay the draft code before Parliament for 40 days before it can be brought into force.
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