On the 25th of August 2025, a group of 47 United Nations Special Procedures mandate holders published a joint statement reaffirming the central role of gender as an analytical lens to advance equality and human rights for all.
The experts expressed deep concern at attempts to dismiss ‘gender’ as a key concept to understand systemic discrimination, violence and exclusion, by attempting to enforce fixed and binary conceptions of sex that “fail to reflect the diversity of women and girls’ lived experiences and disregard the realities of persons who face discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression”.
The erroneous idea that ‘sex’ is a fixed binary erases the existence and experiences of intersex people, including intersex women and girls, while simultaneously serving as a justification for violence and harmful practices committed against them.
OII Europe warmly welcomes the statement. It is crucial that UN experts reaffirm this message now more than ever, amidst growing attacks from anti-rights groups against trans, gender diverse and intersex people all over the world, fueling division, violence and discrimination.
