UK's top court rules on definition of woman

英国最高法院对“女性”的定义作出裁决

Global News Podcast

新闻

2025-04-16

29 分钟
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单集简介 ...

In a landmark ruling, the UK Supreme Court says the legal definition of a woman refers to biological sex. Also: BBC gets rare access to a torture cell in Bangladesh, and the unexpected popularity of a slow TV moose show.
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单集文稿 ...

  • This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

  • I'm Janet Julia and at 13 Hours GMT on Wednesday the 16th of April, these are our main stories.

  • Britain's highest court rules that trans women are not legally women.

  • China insists its economy is doing well for now despite the intense pressure from President Trump's tariffs.

  • A German doctor is charged with a murder of 15 patients.

  • Also in this podcast.

  • It felt like being buried alive, being totally cut off from every outside world.

  • It felt worse than death.

  • The BBC gets rare access to a torture cell in Bangladesh and the 20 centimeter race that can only be watched through high-resolution cameras.

  • It's been one of the most hotly contested cultural, social and political issues in recent years.

  • The global question of how to define gender and biological sex and a landmark court ruling from the UK Supreme Court has now added to

  • that debate.

  • The unanimous decision of this court is

  • that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

  • But we counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another.

  • The ruling by Britain's highest court means

  • that transgender people won't be identified under their chosen gender for legal purposes here in the UK.

  • Effectively, the ruling says that trans women are not legally women.

  • Though the court also took pains to note that transgender people still have legal protection from discrimination.

  • Our Europe regional editor Paul Moss outlined the background to this lengthy legal battle that has culminated in today's court judgment.