UK’s first trans judge to take UK to European court of human rights
Dr Victoria McCloud is bringing action against the UK for infringement of her article 6 rights which guarantee her the right to a fair trial
By Gary Grimes
Dr Victoria McCloud, the UK‘s first publicly transgender judge, has taken legal action against the UK over the recent Supreme Court ruling on the definition of the words ‘woman’ and ‘sex’.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that, in the context of the Equality Act 2010, the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ refer only to “biological women”. Following this ruling, the equality watchdog issued guidance which banned trans people from using the toilet of the gender they identify as.
McCloud, who earlier this year was included in our Attitude 101 list of influential figures, previously sought leave from her position as a judge in order to join the litigation in the case which led to the Supreme Court ruling, however this request was denied. As a result, she retired from the bench after 14 years as a judge and now works as a litigation strategist at W-Legal.
Now the retired judge is applying to the European court of human rights to bring action against the UK for infringement of her article 6 rights which, as per the European Convention on Human rights (ECHR), should have guaranteed her the right to a fair trial in criminal and civil matters.
“The basis is that the supreme court refused to hear me, or my evidence, to provide them with information about the impact on those trans people affected by the judgment and failed to give any reasons,” McCloud recently explained to The Guardian.
“Those are two basic premises of normal justice. There were protest groups speaking on behalf of women in this court case, but ordinary women were not actually represented as a whole,” she went on to say.
“The impacts of all of this have not been dealt with” – Dr Victoria McCloud
“The disabled were not represented, and now we’re seeing the Conservatives saying that trans people have got to use the disabled loos, which impacts the lives of disabled people. The impacts of all of this have not been dealt with.”
McCloud further noted that the Supreme Court’s ruling and the subsequent guidance had “brought chaos”.
Days after the Supreme Court ruling, over 20,000 people took to the streets of London to protest in defence of trans rights.