Human Rights Hijacked: The Politicisation of the EHRC

Labour’s push for contested EHRC Chair reveals how UK institutions are being bent to serve politics, profit, and personal ideologies— not people.

(Medium)

This month, the UK Government moved one step closer to appointing a new Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) — despite a joint letter from Parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee and the Joint Committee on Human Rights formally refusing to endorse the candidate, Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson.

In response to the letter, the Minister for Women and Equalities, Bridget Phillipson, has signalled she may ignore that advice and push ahead. If she does, it could represent a clear breach of the Paris Principles — the international standards that guarantee the independence of human rights institutions like the EHRC.

Worse still, this is happening against a backdrop of explicit media lobbying, partisan political pressure, and a broader shift in UK governance that has turned trans people into a political scapegoat.

Below, I lay out what’s happening, why it matters, and how we can respond.

What Is the EHRC — and Why Does It Matter?

The EHRC is the UK’s National Human Rights Institution (NHRI). Its job is to hold the government and institutions accountable on issues of discrimination and human rights.

It holds “A status” accreditation with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), which means it must operate independently and uphold the Paris Principles.

These principles — adopted by the UN General Assembly — set the gold standard for what a human rights institution should be: independent, impartial, pluralistic, and protected from political interference.

👉 Read the Paris Principles here

What Do the Paris Principles Say About Appointments?

GANHRI’s General Observation 1.8 is crystal clear:

“The process for the selection and appointment of the decision-making body of a National Institution should be open, transparent and participatory… It must be free from political interference. In particular, it should not be subject to the discretion of the Executive.”

It is obvious that the current appointment of the new EHRC Chair is absolutely not ‘free from political interference’ — this is in clear breach of the Paris Principles.

👉 Read GANHRI General Observation 1.8 here

What’s Happening with the EHRC Chair Appointment?

On 1 July 2025, Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson appeared in Parliament before a joint pre-appointment hearing in front of the Women and Equalities Committee and the Human Rights Commission.

📄Read the transcript of the meeting here

The next day, the joint Parliamentary committees issued a letter refusing to endorse her appointment, citing:

• Lack of organisational leadership experience

• Insufficient knowledge across the full remit of the EHRC (especially race and disability)

• No compelling vision for rebuilding public trust in the organisation

  
  

The joint committees have been absolutely clear that Mary-Ann Stephenson is unqualified for the role of EHRC Chair, yet the government are pushing on with her appointment.

📄 Read the joint committee letter and Bridget Phillipson’s response here

When Politicians Admit to Ideological Capture

In June 2024, former Minister for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch openly admitted that the Conservative government had deliberately placed “gender-critical” anti-trans figures into key public roles — including within the EHRC.

“The third reason was having gender-critical men and women in the UK government, holding the positions that mattered most in Equalities and Health… The Cass Review would never have been commissioned under a Labour govt…It was when the ministers changed that everything changed.” - Kemi Badenoch on X, 9 June 2024

This is a rare public admission of political manipulation of human rights institutions — a direct violation of the Paris Principles’ requirements for independence.

Now, it appears that the new Labour government is doubling down on ‘gender critical’ transphobia, going even further than the Tories.

From Bad to Worse: Labour’s Equality Backslide

While many hoped for change, the new (blue) Labour government is continuing — and even expanding — the Conservative strategy of appeasing the trans-hostile media and anti-trans political figures:

• Refusing to reform the EHRC despite years of concern

• Embracing transphobic ‘gender critical’ language that undermines trans legal protections

• Ignoring warnings from parliamentary committees, civil society, and international human rights observers

  
  

Why? Because trans people only make up less than 0.5% of the population, have no media voice — while transphobia is rampant in the mainstream UK media, and no institutional power.

That makes them politically expendable. A convenient scapegoat in a culture war, manufactured to try and:

• Win over right-wing ‘Reform-curious’ voters at a time when Labour is haemorrhaging support in the polls

• Appease billionaire-owned media empires wanting political puppets for their own ideological, political and financial gain

• Protect politicians’ positions of power within their own political party by toeing the ‘gender critical’ transphobic ‘party line’

  
  

This isn’t about balance or fairness. It’s about political opportunism — at the expense of a powerless minority.

When the Media Becomes a Lobbyist

The Times — one of the UK’s most powerful and politically influential newspapers — has stepped into this debate not to report neutrally, but to apply public pressure on a minister to follow through with an appointment. This is, absolutely, intentional political lobbying.

Following the letter from the Women and Equalities Committee and Human Rights Commission being made public, The Times ran an article the following day:

“Bridget Phillipson to overrule MPs with gender-critical EHRC chair“

(Medium)

The Times falsely framed the committee’s rejection of the government’s EHRC Chair pick as a result of “trans lobbying,” — despite the word ‘trans’ not appearing once in the letter.

In framing it this way, The Times:

• Deflects from the real concerns about Mary-Ann Stephenson (lack of leadership experience, narrow focus, loss of public trust).

• Reduces a complex process to a polarised culture war narrative framing trans people as ‘activists’ to diminish their concerns, and to generate advertising clicks.

• Signals to Bridget Phillipson, as the sole person with the power to appoint the new EHRC Chair, that backing down would be seen as “giving in” — not to democratic scrutiny, but to “trans activists.”

  
  

This is how the media operates as a form of soft political coercion, shaping public perception and nudging politicians toward decisions that serve a particular political, ideological, or commercial agenda preferred by the media barons — not the public interest.

This Is Bigger Than Trans Rights

While this appointment has serious implications for the trans community — especially given the EHRC’s recent role in actively undermining trans rights — the warning signs go far beyond one group.

If the government can:

• Override independent scrutiny,

• Install preferred candidates despite formal objections,

• And ignore international standards for independence and transparency…

… then anyone’s rights can be de-prioritised.

This has real-world consequences:

• A watchdog that can’t speak out on racial injustice because it’s politically inconvenient.

• A regulator that avoids criticising government decisions on disability discrimination.

• A commission that becomes silent when hate crime rises or civil liberties are eroded.

An EHRC that doesn’t protect everyone — just the privileged elite who already have power — is in breach of the very principles they’re mandated to uphold.

What Can Be Done?…

1. Submit a Complaint to GANHRI

You don’t need to be a lawyer, organisation, or ‘policy-wonk’ to take action.

Any individual or group can contact GANHRI’s Sub-Committee on Accreditation and raise concerns. Grounds for complaint include:

• Lack of transparency in the appointment process

• Executive override of parliamentary scrutiny

• Political or media interference

• Loss of public trust and failure to uphold pluralism

  
  

GANHRI placed the EHRC under special review in 2023 following similar concerns. Although the EHRC retained its “A status” it was warned to improve engagement and independence.

This latest appointment may violate the very conditions GANHRI set.

📧 Email: ganhri.sca@ganhri.org

📄 Read the GANHRI Review Report (2023) on Great Britain: The EHRC

2. Contact Parliamentarians

Write to:

• Sarah Owen MP, Chair of the Women & Equalities Committee here

• Lord Alton, Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights here

• Your own MP — You can find their contact details here

  
  

Ask them to:

• Raise the issue in Parliament

• Demand a pause on the appointment of Mary-Ann Stephenson as EHRC Chair

• Call for an independent review of the EHRC appointments process

• Push for reforms that prevent future political interference in our Equalities and Human Rights bodies

  
  

3. Raise Public Awareness

• Share the committee letter, GANHRI standards, and criticism of the Times coverage with your networks, explaining what’s happening

• Emphasise that this is not just about trans rights — it’s about politicising human rights oversight

• Encourage public figures, organisations, and journalists to hold the government accountable

Why This Matters

The EHRC exists to uphold everyone’s rights — not just those who hold political or media power.

When EHRC leadership is shaped behind closed doors, when scrutiny is ignored, and when decisions are made to appease powerful media, political, or ideological factions, democracy is undone.

This isn’t just about who chairs a commission…

It’s about whether the UK can still claim to have an independent human rights body — and whether our democracy still protects pluralism, accountability, and truth.

We cannot allow human rights to be captured by ideology, bought by media moguls, or erased by political opportunists — otherwise we all lose.

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