1 The Inquiry undertaken by the Joint
Committee
1. The Draft Gender Recognition Bill was published
in July 2003 by the Department for Constitutional Affairs. As
part of the process of consultation on the Draft Bill, the Joint
Committee on Human Rights was asked to undertake pre-legislative
scrutiny of it. This was because its purpose is to respond to
judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the House
of Lords holding that legislation in this country is incompatible
with rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
and the Human Rights Act 1998 in so far as it fails to give legal
recognition to the acquired or reassigned sex or gender of a transsexual
person.
2. In the course of our inquiry, we invited evidence
from interested members of the public. We received a substantial
number of submissions. They came from individuals with personal
experience of the circumstances at which the Draft Bill is aimed,
from organizations representing or working with them, and from
professional people with expertise in the medical or legal consequences
which are involved. This high-quality evidence has been immensely
valuable in helping us to understand the problems and to assess
the implications of the Draft Bill. We are very grateful to everyone
who devoted so much time to providing us with information and
views.
3. After our initial examination of the Draft Bill
in the light of that evidence, we put a number of questions to
the Department for Constitutional Affairs. The Department's responses
were prompt and informative, and began an exchange of correspondence
which continued for some time. We appreciate the efforts made
by the Department, working under considerable pressure, to explain
the Government's thinking on each issue which we raised, and to
do it speedily and thoroughly.
4. Having considered all the evidence, we now report
our views on the Draft Gender Recognition Bill.
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