Caster Semenya welcomes UN report calling for revoking of sporting regulations that pressure DSD athletes into medical procedures

Caster Semenya has backed a United Nations report calling for countries to outlaw sporting regulations that pressurise athletes like her to undergo “unnecessary” medical interventions.

“It is time for white men to stop telling women and girls how they should look and to stop messing with our bodies,” said the double 800 metres Olympic champion and poster girl for those with differences of sexual development (DSD).

Semenya was responding to a report commissioned by the UN’s Human Rights Council, which also said sports governing bodies should “review, revise and revoke eligibility rules and regulations that have negative effects on athletes’ rights, including those addressing athletes with intersex [DSD] variations”.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet conducted an inquiry into the ‘Intersection of race and gender discrimination in sport’ following a resolution presented to the council by South Africa in March last year as Semenya fought to overturn World Athletics’ eligibility regulations for DSD athletes.

Semenya, who the rules prevent from competing against other women in the 800 metres or 1,500m unless she takes testosterone suppressants or undergoes a gonadectomy, lost her landmark case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and is awaiting the outcome of an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

Irrespective of the result of that appeal, the UN report puts pressure on states to intervene in the matter, including by ruling that sports courts “are not designed to fully address human rights complaints”.

Semenya added: “I thank the UN High Commissioner for highlighting the discrimination and harm faced by women and girls in sport.

“For too long, people controlling sport have looked the other way, ignored our rights. I want to assure them – we will not be silenced and we will not disappear.

“There was never a better time than now to take a stand against systemic discrimination.”

A spokeswoman for World Athletics said of Bachelet’s report: “We have common ground in that we both believe it is important to preserve fair competition in female sport so women are free to compete in national and international sport.

“To do this, it is necessary to ensure the female category in sport is a protected category, which requires rules and regulations to protect it. Otherwise, we risk losing the next generation of female athletes, since they will see no path to success in female sport.

“The mere creation of a female category is discriminatory but it can be a necessary and proportionate means of achieving a legitimate objective. This was the reasoning of the Court of Arbitration for Sport when it upheld our Female Eligibility regulations last year.

“The Court of Arbitration for Sport found the regulations to be ‘a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of attaining a legitimate objective’ of ensuring fair competition in female athletics.”