Good Law Project sues ECNI

We are suing the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI), for failing to comply with its obligations towards trans people under EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights. 

Faced with the prospect of judicial review proceedings from Good Law Project, the ECNI immediately withdrew advice given to an employer about the right toilets for trans people to use.

On Monday 7 July, Good Law Project and a woman who is trans wrote to the ECNI about advice it had given, that a woman without a gender recognition certificate (GRC) must use the men’s toilets. On Thursday 10 July, the ECNI replied saying: 

“After due consideration and having regard to the Paper published by the Commission in June, setting out how it proposes to address legal uncertainties regarding the rights of transgender persons in Northern Ireland, including its proposed application to the Northern Ireland High Court for clarification of the law in this regard, the Commission has written to the applicant’s employer withdrawing the advice given in April 2025.”

Nevertheless, Good Law Project has today issued legal proceedings against the ECNI because (to quote from its grounds):

“EU legislation requires the recognition of an individual’s acquired gender, and such recognition is not contingent upon the individual having obtained a GRC or undergone surgery or taken any other particular steps towards obtaining a GRC. The right to such recognition falls within the scope of the right to respect for private life in Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR) and Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). See, for example, Deldits (C-247/23), §47-49.

“The meaning of the term ‘women’ for the purposes of the Directive should be interpreted to include all individuals who identify as being of the female gender. This interpretation is necessary to protect the private life of transgender women, in particular when it comes to the provision and use of toilet facilities, which falls squarely within the private sphere. It is therefore the interpretation which is required by the CFR and the ECHR. Otherwise, and as occurred in the case of the Second Applicant, a trans woman could be required to use men’s toilets, and so to ‘out’ herself as transgender and put herself at risk of abuse and harassment.”

EU law and European Convention on Human Rights law remain relevant in Northern Ireland because of Article 2(1) of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland which provides that the protections given under human rights and equality law cannot regress in Northern Ireland from where they were when the United Kingdom left the European Union. And the ECNI’s June paper – referred to in its letter – fails to recognise this fundamental protection for trans people.

In accordance with its transparency principles, Good Law Project will shortly publish the grounds as issued.