We no longer recognise the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) as either independent or credible in its statutory role.
The UK Government’s decision to proceed with the appointment of Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson as Chair of the EHRC despite formal objections from both the Joint Committee on Human Rights and Women and Equalities Committee marks a critical turning point. These are cross-party parliamentary bodies with statutory remits to safeguard human rights and equality in the UK. Their concerns were clear: Dr Stephenson lacks the necessary leadership experience, breadth of expertise, and public trust required to restore the EHRC’s legitimacy across all protected characteristics, particularly among the most marginalised communities.
Trans communities and our allies condemn this appointment as a deliberate and strategic continuation of the EHRC’s transformation into a tool of political control rather than human rights defence. As many organisations, including TACC, have made clear, this decision represents not neutrality, but complicity. It is another calculated move in the state-sanctioned campaign to exclude trans people from public life and to roll back the protections that once existed under UK equalities law.
Effective immediately, we will no longer cooperate with the EHRC. We will not consult with them, we will not participate in their reviews, and we will not treat their outputs as representative of human rights standards. We no longer recognise them as an NHRI.
We urge other civil society organisations, equality bodies, and campaign groups, particularly those working with and for marginalised communities, to join us in withdrawing recognition from the EHRC. Continued engagement risks lending legitimacy to an institution that no longer upholds the values of independence, accountability, or universality that human rights demand. By stepping back, we send a collective message: the erosion of rights and state capture of regulatory bodies cannot be normalised.
We also call on all service providers, whether in healthcare, education, housing, or public services, to uphold their duties under the actual law, not the guidance of a compromised and politically directed body. The Equality Act 2010, the Human Rights Act 1998, and relevant case law remain the legal standard. The EHRC’s guidance is not the law. It is not legally binding, not mandatory, and not a defence for discriminatory practice. No organisation is required to follow EHRC advice, especially when that advice contradicts statutory protections or international human rights norms. Institutions must rely on the law itself, not the politicised interpretations of a so-called human rights body that has abandoned its own mandate.
We instead call on international human rights bodies, including GANHRI and the United Nations, to take urgent note of Britain’s failure to maintain an independent, functional national human rights institution. The EHRC no longer meets that threshold.
We will continue to work with civil society, legal experts, and international mechanisms to defend the rights the EHRC has abandoned. We will not legitimise an institution that legitimises our erasure.