Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights: Summary

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The shortest summary

We re-affirm the sex-based rights of women and girls.

We reaffirm motherhood as an exclusively female status.
We reaffirm women's and girls rights to physical and reproductive integrity and oppose their exploitation through surrogacy and related practices.
We reaffirm women's rights to freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association, and political participation.
We reaffirm women's rights to fair play in sports.
We reaffirm the need to end violence against women and girls, and to protect rights of children.

We oppose all forms of discrimination against women and girls that result from replacing "sex" with "gender identity" in law, policy, and social practice.

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Introduction

This Declaration reaffirms the sex-based rights of women which are set out in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979 (CEDAW).

CEDAW is a tool that has helped, and continues to help, women worldwide to successfully fight sex-based discrimination. Here is why:

CEDAW requires signing countries to enact policies that reject sex-based stereotypes, as well as prejudices and customs based on the idea that either sex is better or worse than the other.
CEDAW affirms "gender" means the roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes a society considers appropriate for either sex.
CEDAW affirms gender is socially constructed, learned, and performed, not innate or essential.

However, the UN recently changed references to "sex" with "gender" in its documents, strategies, and actions. The concept of ‘gender identity’ has been incorporated into many influential international human rights documents. This undermines women's sex-based rights and CEDAW's mission.

Articles of the Declaration

1. Women's rights are based on their sex

Sex is the physical and biological characteristics that distinguish males from females. Women and girls' rights should be based on sex, not "gender identity".

2. Motherhood is an exclusively female status

Maternal rights and services are based on women's unique, sex-based capacity to gestate and give birth to children. These rights and services, and the word "mother" itself should stay reserved for persons of the female sex.

3. Physical and reproductive integrity

Women have the right to control their fertility. The reproductive rights of women and girls, and their access to reproductive services, should be upheld. Forced pregnancies, surrogate motherhood, and medical research aimed at enabling men to gestate and give birth to children are to be eliminated.

4. Freedom of opinion and expression

Women have the right to hold opinions without interference. This should include the right to hold and express opinions about ‘gender identity’ without being subject to harassment, prosecution or punishment.

5. Peaceful assembly and association

Women have a right to peaceful assembly and a freedom of association. This should include the right to assemble and associate based on their sex. Lesbians should have a right to assemble and associate on the basis of their sexual orientation. Women's assemblies and associations should not have to include men who claim to have female ‘gender identities’.

6. Political participation

There are opportunities and protections that were specifically created to help women achieve equal status with men, such as participation quotas. These opportunities and protections should apply only to persons of the female sex and shall not include men who claim to have female ‘gender identities’.

7. Participation in sports and physical education

Women and girls are objectively physically different from men and boys in ways other than reproductive capacity. For women and girls to have equitable opportunities in sports, certain sports activities must remain single-sex.

8. Elimination of violence against women

To fight violence against women and girls, single-sex victim support services, including rape crisis centres and domestic violence shelters, should remain single-sex. In order to create effective policies to eliminate sex-based violence, we need accurate data and statistics about who the victims and perpetrators are, including their sex.

9. Protection of the rights of the child

Children should receive accurate information about human biology and reproduction, and not gender stereotyping through their education. Children should not be subjected to the use of drugs and surgery for ‘gender reassignment’.

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Download Translated Summary PDFs

8 page English Summary English Summary

1 page English Summary 1 page summary of the Declaration

A5 English Summary Booklet: A5 Summary Booklet

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