The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe resolution<\/a> \u2013 \u2018For a ban on conversion practices \u2013 is to be voted on Thursday, January 29, calls on member states of the Council of Europe to introduce bans with criminal sanctions on so-called \u201cconversion practices\u201d.<\/p>\nThe draft resolution defines conversion practices, also known as \u2018conversion therapies\u2019, as \u201call measures or efforts aimed at changing, repressing, or suppressing a person\u2019s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, based on the false belief that such core aspects of a person\u2019s identity are pathological or undesirable or somehow able to change\u201d.<\/p>\n
It further states that conversion practices aimed at promoting heterosexuality or \u201caligning a person\u2019s gender identity with their sex assigned at birth\u201d, include \u201cpsychological or behavioural counselling\u201d; spiritual and\/or religious rituals; \u201caversion methods\u201d; and \u201cverbal abuse, coercion, isolation, forced medication, electric shocks, physical and sexual abuse\u201d.<\/p>\n
The resolution expresses the assembly\u2019s concern that conversion practices \u201cpersist\u201d across the 46 Council of Europe member states, and consequently calls on countries to introduce legislation at a national level to \u201cprohibit conversion practices, providing for criminal sanctions\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Gript, Ms O\u2019Malley said that she was very concerned about \u201cyet another attempt from trans-activists to push in an unnecessary ban that will cause a good deal more harm than good\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis proposed ban exposes a fundamental lack of understanding of the practice of psychotherapy. It risks criminalising conventional clinical work that is typically exploratory, cautious, and responsive to uncertainty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce therapy itself is framed as suspect, clinicians become defensive and unwilling to work in this field and young people ultimately lose access to care that prioritises psychological understanding over premature medicalisation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ms O\u2019Malley said that the resolution\u2019s understanding of conversion practices is \u201cnot accurate\u201d, and that it \u201crelies on an ideological definition of conversion practices rather than a clinical one\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt assumes that any therapeutic work which does not affirm a stated identity goal is coercive by default,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor young people with gender dysphoria, this is particularly harmful. It discourages careful assessment, exploration of comorbidities, differential diagnosis, and therapeutic neutrality, all of which are foundational to ethical mental health care. A blanket ban replaces clinical judgment with political compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PACE resolution would be improved by \u201cpromoting evidence-based, developmentally informed and conventional mental health care that protects therapeutic neutrality and informed consent,\u201d Ms O\u2019Malley said.<\/p>\n
The standardisation of titles such as counsellors and psychotherapists, Ms O\u2019Malley said, would help to ensure that the professionals working in relevant fields were qualified and credentialed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would include clear distinctions between abusive practices and legitimate psychotherapy, safeguards for exploratory therapy, and investment in long-term outcome research,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cprotecting children from harm requires better standards, not broader prohibitions\u201d.<\/p>\n
While PACE resolutions are not legally binding, they often provide guidance for national legislatures, leading opponents of the resolution across Europe to recommend that the Assembly refrain from adopting it.<\/p>\n
The Athena Forum, a European initiative working to \u201csafeguard and advance sex-based rights across law, policy and civil society\u201d, described the resolution<\/a> as calling for \u201ccriminal sanctions, national legislation, monitoring mechanisms and coordination with civil society organisations to enforce this framework\u201d.<\/p>\nCommenting on the potential ramifications if the resolution is passed, Ms O\u2019Malley said that member states could seek to \u201ctranspose the resolution into national law or professional guidance in ways that go beyond its original scope\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could include regulatory pressure on clinicians, complaints mechanisms based on ideological rather than clinical criteria, and a chilling effect on therapists working with gender-distressed young people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe result would not be increased protection, but reduced clinical efficacy and a narrowing of acceptable therapeutic practice across Europe, particularly for children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A PACE resolution being voted on this week that includes counselling aimed at aligning a person\u2019s \u201cgender identity\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,151529,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,14624,110594,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-309664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-conversion-practices","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-pace","20":"tag-stella-omalley","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}