ZCZC
BSP-17
SPORT-GENDER-ATHLETICS-IAAF
UN rights council blasts IAAF over testerone rules for female athletes
GENEVA, March 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The UN Human Rights Council has
condemned the IAAF’s attempt to regulate the testosterone levels of female
athletes, as nations unanimously backed the cause of South African runner
Caster Semenya.
In a rare intrusion in the world of sport, the United Nations’ top rights
body has passed a resolution stating that the International Association of
Athletics Federations (IAAF) may be in breach of “international human rights
norms and standards”.
The South African-led resolution called on governments to ensure that
sports organisations “refrain from developing and enforcing policies and
practices that force, coerce or otherwise pressure women and girl athletes
into undergoing unnecessary, humiliating and harmful medical procedures”.
It was adopted by consensus by the council’s 47 members on Thursday.
South Africa’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Nozipho Joyce Mxakato-
Diseko, told AFP she was “pleasantly delighted” the resolution was adopted by
acclamation.
“It means that in essence all the members of the UN agree with us,”
Mxakato-Diseko said.
“Caster is a woman,” the ambassador added. “She cannot be told by anybody
on the basis of … dubious scientific evidence that she is not a woman.”
– Controversial regulations –
The IAAF is looking to force so-called “hyperandrogenic” athletes or those
with “differences of sexual development” (DSD) to seek treatment to lower
their testosterone levels below a prescribed amount if they wish to continue
competing as women.
World athletics’ governing body has argued the moves are necessary to
create a “level playing field” for other female athletes.
Double Olympic champion Semenya, who has dominated the women’s 800 metres
over the last decade, has filed a challenge against the IAAF at the Court of
Arbitration for Sport.
Her testosterone levels are not publically known.
But from 2011 to 2015, Semenya took hormone suppressants to bring her in
line with testosterone limits imposed at the time.
During that five-year period, her best times in the 800m were a second or
two slower than before and after.
The sports court is due to deliver a decision her challenge by the end of
April.
– UN rights chief –
The council resolution also called on the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to write “a report on the intersections between
race and gender discrimination in sports”, with particular focus on sport
governing bodies like the IAAF.
Mxakato-Diseko said her push to involve the high commissioner and to
introduce this issue into the UN system was to ensure that sport
organisations cannot “selectively choose which human rights they are going to
follow”.
She called the IAAF’s conduct “atrocious” and said Semenya was being
targeted on “a gender basis and a race basis”.
South Africa has previously accused the IAAF of seeking to violate women’s
bodies.
Some scientific experts have argued that barring Semenya from competition
due to naturally high testosterone levels would be like excluding basketball
players because they are too tall.
Mxakato-Diseko compared it to excluding a child from class because it has
a high IQ.
The goal of the resolution, the ambassador said, is to assert “the right
of Caster Semenya to earn a living and pursue a career of her choice as a
woman”.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1945HRS