Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody continues to embarrass herschel, this time on an international stage

Cody is so inept she can’t even define her own portfolio. She doesn’t know how to define the terms “sex” or “woman” and has taken aim at UN Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem.

A freedom of information request by the Australian revealed that Dr Cody sought to find ways to block the reappointment of the steadfast women’s sex based rights advocate.

In an internal email to Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) chief executive Leanne Smith, obtained by The Australian under freedom of information laws, Dr Cody criticises the UN Special Rapporteur on ­Violence Against Women, Reem Alsalem, over her “intervention on issues of trans women and their rights”.

Dr Cody asks Ms Smith whether the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) – of which the AHRC is a member – “can have any role in influencing the ­reappointment of special procedures and express a view about the inappropriateness of an ­appointment”.

Ms Alsalem told The Australian she was “disappointed but not surprised” by Dr Cody’s move, pointing out that the UN Human Rights Council placed great emphasis on protecting its special rapporteurs – independent human rights investigators – from “interference, intimidation, or reprisals”. “I find Ms Cody’s judgement of how I do my work rather ironic given that it is coming from her,” Ms Alsalem said. “At least I am able to clearly ­define the subject of my mandate – women and girls – and their sex as biologically female. As I have said in my opening remarks at the Human Rights Council session of June 2024, ‘you cannot protect what you cannot define’.”

Dr Cody is a national embarrassment who is paid an extraordinary amount of tax payer funds to head up a portfolio she can’t define. She spends more time protecting and promoting men who wish they were women, than actual women. She thinks women can have a penis and they deserve more legal protections than women who are targeted by the men who wish they were women.

The Sex Discrimination Commissioner angered women’s groups by intervening as amicus curiae (an ostensibly neutral “friend of the court”) in Ms Tickle’s case against Giggle app founder Sall Grover, who had denied the trans woman access to the female-only networking platform.

However, Ms Alsalem also sought amicus status in the case, as UN Special Rapporteur, to argue that under the UN treaty the term “gender” referred to two sexes, male and female, and the term “woman” referred to a biological female.

Judge Robert Bromwich ultimately refused Ms Alsalem’s request to intervene, although Grover’s barrister read out much of her statement in court.

Bromwich also incorrectly stated in the case that humans can change sex, which is absurd. The statement denies science and reality. It was simply more evidence that the judiciary thinks writing something on a piece of paper and calling it “law” overrides the laws of nature.

Disgracefully the Sex Discrimination Commissioner who doesn’t know what sex is, wrote to the AHRC looking for ways to undermine the special rapporteur.

“The concerns I have about her reappointment are her intervention on issues of trans women and their rights and her interpretation of CEDAW to exclude trans women,” Dr Cody wrote.

After arguing that Ms Alsalem’s position was wrong, Dr Cody raises the question of whether the GANHRI could influence her reappointment.

She said her concerns about Ms Alsalem’s appointment were firstly that she was “misconstruing CEDAW, against an accepted body of academic writing, general comments and concluding ­observations of the CEDAW Committee” and secondly that she was “not focusing on the very important work of violence against women and children”.

The response to the request is unknown.

Ms Alsalem told The Australian: “The clear interest Dr Cody conveys in exploring ways to prevent an extension of my role as mandate holder are disappointing but not surprising.”

Ms Alsalem pointed to Human Rights Council resolutions requiring “all states and other actors to respect the autonomy of mandate holders, cooperate in good faith, and refrain from any act that might hinder their work or compromise their independence”.

Dr Anna Cody must resign. She cannot define her own portfolio and now she is trying to interfere with and redefine human rights for women internationally.