In this project, Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission is examining the protections in the Human Rights Act 1993 for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people who have an innate variation of sex characteristics.

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The Law Commission published an Issues Paper on 27 June 2024 and is accepting submissions until 5pm on Thursday 5 September 2024. The Commission intends to publish its final report in mid-2025.

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It is vital that gender critical / sex realist views are well represented.

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Speak Up for Women met with the Law Commission in early August to provide feedback, ask questions and gather more information for our submission. 

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We sent our response to the Law Commission on August 24th, you can find our submission here. 
 

Because we were able to submit as an organisation we were able to approach the review more broadly. We reference many of the questions directly but also provide a large amount of general information and opinion. There is also some useful background information to make the submission more readable to those who may not have read the Issues Paper.

 

We have heard that some people are finding the online submission process a little daunting.  

A couple of things to note from our contact with the Law Commission;

 

1. They welcome submissions from a wide range of individuals and groups.

2. They don’t expect all submitters to have read the Issues Paper before making a submission. While they are hopeful that some submitters will read relevant chapters in the paper before submitting, they appreciate that it is not realistic to expect all submitters to do so. They have worded the consultation questions so that people can answer them without reading the relevant chapter if they wish. They have also published a shorter 20-page summary document on their website, which some people may find more accessible.

3. Submitters do not need to answer all 80 questions. Some people may choose only to answer one question, or a small handful. 

4. Question 80 asks a very broad question about whether there is anything else relevant to the review that people want to share and it is possible to answer only this question. You can fast track to this page by using the CHAPTERS 16-18 link in the right hand column, or by clicking this link. This will take you to the final page of the submission process, scroll down to the end and click Review and Submit.

5. Alternatively you can fast track to CHAPTERS 13-15 (single-sex spaces) by clicking on this link.

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