The World Health Organization has been accused by the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls of developing new rules with a “one-sided” pro-medicalizing approach to transgender care.
Reem Alsalem has entered a contentious debate over the makeup of the recently announced WHO council, which will work to create the organization’s first international guidelines on child trans treatment.
21 experts whose histories were requested to contribute to the creation of rules were published by the UN health agency last month. Numerous LGBTQ+ organizations and women’s rights organizations expressed worry about the committee because of its makeup, which highlighted a lack of diversity of viewpoints.
Alsalem, who has recently gotten involved in the discussion surrounding Scotland’s sex recognition reform bill, wrote to the director-general of the WHO to express her opinion that the committee was made up of “significant uncontrolled conflicts of interest.”
“Parties whose views differ from those held by trans activist organizations do not seem to have been invited,” she continued. These stakeholders include authorities from European public health organizations who have taken the initiative to create an evidence-based and thus cautious approach to youth gender transitions (for example, in England, Sweden, and Finland).
She added that of the 21 commission members, “no one appears to represent a voice of caution for medicalizing youth with gender dysphoria or the protection of female-only spaces,” adding that the majority had “strong, one-sided views in favor of promoting physiological gender transition and constitutional recognition of self-asserted gender.”
The position of UN special rapporteur is an independent one given to individual rights experts who provide UN bodies with knowledge in specialized fields.
According to the WHO, the new recommendations will offer “guidance on health sector initiatives aimed at increasing access and use of quality and respectful health solutions by trans and gender-diverse people.”
The five areas covered by the guidelines are “provision of gender-affirming care, including
hormones,” “health policies that support sex diverse care,” and “legal recognition of self-determined gender identity.”
Organizations that have expressed concern about the makeup and objectives of the WHO commission have complained that, despite those positions being the subject of ongoing discussion in many countries, the UN organization has accepted both constitutional recognition of self-ID and the benefits of gender-affirming treatment as starting points. The focus of discussions over NHS policy on trans care is on how fast the claimed identity of young people with gender dysphoria should be confirmed.
The committee’s lack of representatives who are experts in child development, according to Alsalem, was “a considerable mistake” because “the vast majority of people contacting gender-related services worldwide are adolescents and young adults who had no previous history of gender-related distress.”
She also expressed concern that the WHO’s three-week appointment period, which was intended to provide opinions on the composition of the committee, had overlapped with a trip and ended on Monday.
The council is scheduled to meet in February to discuss the suggested guidelines at the WHO office in Geneva. The meeting should be postponed until all committee-related problems have been addressed, according to Alsalem. She claimed that the WHO had not yet responded to her email from January 4th.
The Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender questioned why the WHO seemed to be advocating gender-affirming care as often the best course of action. This network of professionals, primarily in the UK and Ireland, examined the controversy over sex and gender in care. According to the organization, there are no reliable randomized-controlled trials supporting gender-affirming medical and surgical interventions, and as a result, no studies exist that provide information on the effectiveness of these treatments in children or adults.
WHO added, “WHO guidelines are generally based on balancing available data, human rights principles, consideration of harms and benefits, and inputs of end-users and beneficiaries,” and it encouraged stakeholders to offer feedback.
