A few days ago we emailed the Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP in his capacity as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (NI), and, in association the Rt Hon Anneliese Dodds MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities).
This further to Network Lead, Alan Mercel-Sanca over the past 12 months to seek Republic of Ireland and UK governments to ensure that South to North, cross-border conveying of LGBTQI+ minors and young vulnerable adults who are Citizens of the Republic be protected against de-facto trafficking/conveying (the FGM trafficking across borders phenomenon being the main relevant comparison for the severity of harm inflicted on victims) into the North to endure conversion practices.
The culmination of this work being the exceptional result that the Irish Parliament (The Oireachtas) and the British Parliament (Westminster) relevant parliamentary committees — for the Republic of Ireland, the Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Committee, and for the UK, the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee — both formally confirming that the matter of this phenomenon will in regard to UK and Ireland envisaged legislation banning conversion practices will be directly considered at pre-legislative scrutiny (PLS) stages. Thereby ensuring that if this provision is not made in the said governments legislation proposals, then that it will be engaged with by the said two all-parties joint/select parliamentary committees will ensure it is effectively raised.
We are very pleased to confirm that earlier in the year we had helpful email interaction with Mr Benn (who also in reply advised that we involve his colleague Ms Dodds in developments in this area, with Hilary directly copying in Ms Dodds in his reply to us). We a few days ago emailed Mr Benn, with copy to Ms Dodds, as well as to UK Labour Party Leader, Sir Keir Starmer, and also Leader of the Labour Party of Ireland, Deputy Ivana Bacik in regard to our formal request to the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland that this very important cross-border conveying/de-facto trafficking potential evasion of conversion practices banning legislation element ensure this is included in legislation. This is especially timely given the most welcome recent announcement by the Labour Party in the UK that conversion practices banning is going to be a top level legislative item in its programme for government, coming at an early stage of the latter: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/06/13/labour-pledges-to-ban-conversion-therapy-election-manifesto/.
In our communication we have emphasised how important it is for our Trans community of Ireland that the anti-Trans dimension of conversion practices be included in legislation, especially given the far right anti-Trans campaign one of whose major aspects includes influencing NHS services provision. A valuable information document being conveyed to us by Trans Healthcare Action (THA), Ireland, and provided on to Mr Benn regarding conversion practices and our Trans community.
We are very pleased to provide news of our communication of a few days ago to the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. We shall in the event of Mr Benn’s confirmation as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland being announced post-election day provide further formal follow up.
For more on background please see https://lgbtnetwork4change.com/pan-british-isles-work-by-the-network-sees-improvement-prospects-for-more-robust-legislation-to-ban-conversion-practices/ and https://lgbtnetwork4change.com/two-different-records-to-date-concerning-bills-to-ban-conversion-therapy-therapies-uk-and-republic-of-ireland/.
More information to follow post General Election! contact.lgbtnetwork@gmail.com