ILGA Feminist Declaration & Stonewall. Lowering the age of consent to 10?

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

There's been a bit of a stooshie on twitter today about Stonewall supporting the age of consent being reduced to ten. This sounded a bit unlikely to me, so I looked into it. (Spoiler, yes, indirectly they do).

The story stems from an organisation called ILGA (The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association). ILGA "support LGBTI civil society worldwide through advocacy and research projects, and give grassroots movements a voice within international organisations".

Stonewall are members of ILGA as are many, many UK charities, unions etc. You can see the list of members here: ilga.org/civi_details
(Archive: archive.li/pAc0a ). ILGA requires that "All members must support the aims of ILGA." ilga.org/membership

Last year ILGA, along with the "Women's Rights Caucus" (I have been unable to find who this includes) adopted the "Feminist Declaration".

Story and link to the declaration here: ilga.org/CSW64-Womens-Rights-Caucus-feminist-declaration-Beijing25 (Archive: archive.li/YzHiQ ).

The International Womens Health Coalition (IWHC) host the document here iwhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Beijing-25-Feminist-declaration.pdf Archive: archive.li/TNA7m (Direct link, will trigger download)

Section 14 of the Declaration begins with:

"Respect the rights of all individuals to exercise autonomy over their lives, including their sexualities, identities and bodies, desires and pleasures free from all types of discrimination, coercion and violence, and fully realize sexual and reproductive rights, and ensure bodily autonomy, integrity and sovereignty, by taking the following actions:"

Section 14a (bolding mine) states:

" Eliminate all laws and policies that punish or criminalize same-sex intimacy, gender affirmation, abortion, HIV transmission non-disclosure and exposure, or that limit the exercise of bodily autonomy, including laws limiting legal capacity of adolescents , people with disabilities or other groups to provide consent to sex or sexual and reproductive health services or laws authorizing non-consensual abortion, sterilization, or contraceptive use;"

According to the WHO "WHO defines 'Adolescents' as individuals in the 10-19 years age group"

Obviously there are further issues within this short paragraph alone, and I am sure there are plenty more if anyone fancies wading through the entire document

Wasn't sure whether to start a new thread or not as this is tangentially related. Another example of an organisation signing up to a declaration with very controversial areas, which their accolytes are now saying that bigots are deliberately misrepresenting.

www.holyrood.com/news/view,fears-raised-over-green-manifesto-call-for-sex-and-gender-to-removed-from-birth-certificate

^Fears raised over Green manifesto call to remove sex and gender from birth certificates
Fears raised over Green manifesto call to remove sex and gender from birth certificates
SCOTTISH Green plans to scrap the recording of sex and gender on birth certificates could see women “cease to exist as a legal category,” one of the world’s foremost human rights experts has warned.^

Robert Wintemute, a professor of human rights law at Kings College London, said he was surprised by the party’s pledge to enshrine all of the Yogyakarta principles into Scottish law.

Scots policy experts MurrayBlackburnMackenzie warned that it could “remove the ability to challenge sex discrimination” and “remove the ability to recognise sex in jobs involving providing counselling or intimate care, in services such as single sex hospital wards, and in activities such as sports.”

In their manifesto, published on Wednesday, the party pledged to “ensure LGBT+ inclusion in Scottish Government international development policies, and enshrining the Yogyakarta human rights principles into Scots law.”

That includes principle 31 which calls for everyone to have “the right to legal recognition without reference to, or requiring assignment or disclosure of, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics.”

To enable this, governments who sign up to the principles would be required to “end the registration of the sex and gender of the person in identity documents such as birth certificates, identification cards, passports and driver licences, and as part of their legal personality”.

I think that might be worthy of another thread, ItsAll.

The other thread is long but interesting.

I put a few comparisons between the official UN Doc which they feel has 'gaps' and the one being discussed.

It's worth reading the whole of the one being discussed.

I couldn't find a list of the 200 signatories.

The response I would have expected from orgs who have signed would be. You're right that's not clear. It needs updating so it is.

What has actually happened is a flat refusal to acknowledge any issues whatsoever with the wording, and accusations of homophobia.

For the poster upthread.

Playing into the hands of the Christian right... Eh? I'm in England. Not sure what that's about.

Mechanisms for access to abortion contraception for young people who need them have been in place for years.

The CPS guidelines are very clear that prosecuting similar age teens for consensual sex is not in the public interest.

This document is supposed to apply globally and is apparently a feminist approach. What will the result be in lowering the age of consent everywhere?

The WHO etc say it should be 18 this goes against this.