A United Nations Special Rapporteur has issued a comprehensive report calling on governments worldwide to prohibit social, legal, and medical “transition” procedures for children, marking a significant development in international human rights discourse. The report, presented by Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, received input from Alliance Defending Freedom International and 179 other stakeholders in its development.
The report, entitled “Sex-based violence against women and girls: new frontiers and emerging issues,” warns that states are failing to address both persistent and newly emerging forms of sex-based violence, including those related to gender ideology implementation. Alsalem’s findings represent a notable shift in UN positioning on gender-related policies affecting children and women’s rights.
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Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, marriage and family, and the sanctity of life.
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Alliance Defending Freedom International contributed to the report through its submission process, joining nearly 180 stakeholders who provided evidence and analysis to the Special Rapporteur. The organization’s Director of UN Advocacy, Giorgio Mazzoli, characterized the report as delivering “a timely and urgent message as international awareness solidifies around the dangerous human rights implications of gender ideology, especially its impact on the well-being and healthy development of children”.
Legal Definitions and Protective Frameworks
The UN expert’s report addresses what it describes as an “international push to delink the definition of men and women from their biological sex,” expressing concern about the removal of sex-specific language and its impact on legal recognition and protection of women’s rights. The report specifically calls for states to “ensure that the terms ‘women’ and ‘girls’ are only used to describe biological females and that such a meaning is recognized in law.”
This definitional framework extends to practical protections, with the Special Rapporteur explicitly calling for the protection of single-sex spaces for women, including in prisons and healthcare settings. The report draws from state submissions, recent case law, and existing human rights frameworks, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
Mazzoli emphasized the significance of definitional clarity, noting that the report “underscores how the erosion of legal clarity around sex, an objective and immutable biological reality, has had devastating implications for the dignity, safety and rights of women and girls.” The Alliance Defending Freedom International director referenced the Special Rapporteur’s statement to governments at the UN Human Rights Council: “You cannot protect what you cannot define.”
Medical Interventions and Child Protection Concerns
The report documents what it characterizes as mounting evidence regarding the consequences of transitioning procedures for minors. According to the UN expert, “the long-lasting and harmful consequences of social and medical transitioning of children, including girls, are being increasingly documented” and include “persistence or intensification of psychological distress; persistence of body dissatisfaction; infertility, early onset of the menopause and an increase in the risk of osteoporosis; sexual dysfunction; and loss of the ability to breastfeed in cases of breast mastectomy.”
These documented concerns have prompted policy reversals in multiple jurisdictions. The report notes that several countries, “such as Brazil, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom,” have changed course and restricted “children’s access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery on sexual and reproductive organs.” The Special Rapporteur concluded that allowing children access to such procedures “not only violates their right to safety, security and freedom from violence, but also disregards their human right to the highest standards of health and goes against their best interests.”
The report’s findings align with broader international developments, including the US Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States of America v. Skrmetti to uphold Tennessee’s protective legislation. Alliance Defending Freedom International noted that this decision demonstrates “a global shift toward dismantling gender ideology,” referencing similar policy changes across multiple continents.
In Europe, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Hungary, and Slovakia have implemented legislative, judicial, or administrative measures protecting minors from gender-related medical interventions. Latin American countries, including Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, have enacted similar prohibitions.
Mazzoli concluded that “governments have an obligation under international law to eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls,” requiring “urgent and concerted action to reverse the harms caused by the ongoing erasure of their sex-based rights under the pervasive influence of gender ideology.”
The UN expert’s report represents a significant development in international human rights analysis, providing governmental authorities with detailed recommendations for protecting both children’s and women’s rights within existing legal frameworks. Alliance Defending Freedom International’s participation in this process reflects the organization’s broader advocacy efforts at the international level.
