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Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody, who is paid over $400,000 per year to protect women’s rights, stands accused of secretly targeting a UN investigator who insists international law defines women by biological sex.

Anna Cody, Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, secretly asked how to prevent the reappointment of a key UN official who rejects transgender ideology, according to a covert email obtained by The Australian.

The target of Dr Cody’s plot was Reem Alsalem, a UN women’s rights investigator, who is on record stating that “women” in international law refers to biological females.

Dr Cody faced criticism earlier this year after telling a Senate estimates committee that, despite her role as Sex Discrimination Commissioner, she doesn’t “understand the term ‘biological men’,” and that she includes “trans women” in her definition of women.

In the secret email obtained under freedom of information laws, Dr Cody denounced Ms Alsalem for her “intervention on issues of trans women and their rights”.

Dr Cody sent the email to Leanne Smith, chief executive of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), querying if there were any levers to pull “in influencing the ­reappointment of special procedures” or “express[ing] a view about the inappropriateness of an ­appointment”.

Ms Alsalem, who serves as the UN Special Rapporteur on ­Violence Against Women, made headlines in 2024, when she spoke up in defence of embattled Liberal MP Moira Deeming, who was ejected from her party for attending a women’s rights march that was subsequently highjacked by neo-Nazi protesters.

Our Sex Discrimination Commissioner, who is in charge of protecting women’s rights, believes that anybody can be a woman, so long as they identify as one. pic.twitter.com/o9g0DIpOkx

— Senator Claire Chandler (@SenatorClaire) October 8, 2025

Cody Intervenes in Controversial Case

Anna Cody, who remained silent on the Deeming affair, chose to intervene in a seperate high-profile case earlier this year to defend men accessing women’s-only spaces. As reported by The Australian:

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

In her submission to the court, Dr Cody claimed that Mr Tickle’s right to use the Giggle app was consistent with Australia’s obligations under the the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

As UN Special Rapporteur, Ms Alsalem also sought amicus status in Tickle v Giggle to argue, contra Dr Cody, that CEDAW’s use of the term “woman” referred specifically to adult females, not to men who identify as such.

Ms Alsalem’s bid to intervene in the case was ultimately rejected by the judge.

It was Alsalem’s attempt to intervene in Tickle v Giggle that apparently prompted Dr Cody to covertly seek means to depose the UN investigator, who at the time was seeking reappointment to her role.

Controversy Over Cody’s Conduct

According to The Australian, Ms Alsalem was “disappointed but not surprised” at Dr Cody’s secret attempt to silence her dissent on the issue.

“I find Ms Cody’s judgement of how I do my work rather ironic,” she explained.

“At least I am able to clearly ­define the subject of my mandate — women and girls — and their sex as biologically female,” she said, adding that “you cannot protect what you cannot define”.

Ms Alsalem also emphasised that the UN Human Rights Council takes very seriously the protection of its special rapporteurs from “interference, intimidation, or reprisals”.

In comments to The Australian, Giggle app founder Sall Grover affirmed that “Reem Alasalem’s interpretation of CEDAW is correct.”

“I think it’s an absolute scandal that Cody is proposing that Reem be removed,” Grover added, “because this is so far beyond the scope of her job.”

Anna Cody, who has served in her role since September 2023, receives a taxpayer-funded salary of $408,020 per year to protect women’s rights.

The Daily Declaration reached out to Dr Anna Cody for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.

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