\n<\/p>\n
The South African runner Caster Semenya has called for athletes\u2019 rights to be better protected after Europe\u2019s top human rights court ruled that she had not been given a fair trial when she contested a policy that required her to lower her testosterone levels in order to compete in women\u2019s sport.<\/p>\n
The decision, handed down on Thursday by the European court of human rights, was the latest twist in the two-time Olympic gold medallist\u2019s extraordinary legal battle.<\/p>\n
The middle-distance runner \u2013 who won gold in the 800m at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and has always been legally identified as female \u2013 was born with what sporting officials describe as \u201cdifferences of sex development\u201d, meaning her body naturally produces higher levels of testosterone than most women.<\/p>\n
The governing body for track and field has long maintained that Semenya must take drugs to reduce her testosterone levels in order to compete as a woman. The policy was upheld by the Lausanne-based court of arbitration for sport in 2019, and then by a Swiss federal tribunal in 2020, leading Semenya to take her long-running battle against the regulations to the European court.<\/p>\n
On Thursday Semenya welcomed the European court\u2019s decision, describing it as \u201cgreat for me, great for athletes\u201d as she spoke to reporters outside the court. \u201cWe need to respect athletes, we need to put their rights first,\u201d said the 34-year-old.<\/p>\n
The decision does not change the rules that effectively ended her career after she won two Olympics and three world titles. The court said it could not uphold an earlier finding by a lower chamber that Semenya had been the victim of discrimination, deeming the complaints inadmissible as they did not fall under Switzerland\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
But it handed her a partial victory in finding that the case required a \u201crigorous judicial review\u201d as there were serious personal rights at risk and the Swiss federal court\u2019s review had \u201cfallen short of that requirement\u201d. It ordered Switzerland to pay the athlete \u20ac80,000 (\u00a369,000) for her expenses.<\/p>\n
The decision paves the way for the case to be sent back to the Swiss federal court in Lausanne for reconsideration.<\/p>\n
Between 2011 and 2015, Semenya complied with a process set out by track and field\u2019s governing body, taking medication to lower her testosterone levels. She later likened it to being used as a \u201chuman guinea pig\u201d, saying she had grappled with side effects such as constant sickness, panic attacks and soreness even as she continued to win titles.<\/p>\n
Track authorities have argued that the limits on testosterone levels are necessary and reasonable to maintain fairness in women\u2019s track events. Their critics say there is a lack of scientific research to support this view.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Caster Semenya won gold in the 800m at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.<\/span> Photograph: Martin Rickett\/PA<\/p>\n After the governing body for track and field formalised its policy on testosterone levels in 2018, Semenya refused to comply, leaving her ineligible to compete. On Thursday, the governing body, World Athletics, did not respond to the European court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n The consequences of Semenya\u2019s legal battle could reverberate across the sports world as it dovetails with the International Olympic Committee\u2019s consideration of whether to reintroduce some means of gender testing.<\/p>\n The link was emphasised by Semenya last month in an interview with a South African newspaper. \u201cIt\u2019s a battle for human rights now,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about competing. It\u2019s about putting athletes\u2019 rights first. It\u2019s about the protection of athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2023, Human Rights Watch described the rules that Semenya had been subject to as \u201cdegrading and invasive of privacy, on grounds that are scientifically contested\u201d.<\/p>\n The regulations were incompatible with respect for women\u2019s rights, and the freedom to live without cruel, discriminatory and degrading treatment, it added. \u201cInternational sporting bodies set regulations with scant regard for international human rights norms, as if they are exempt from human rights standards.\u201d<\/p>\n On Thursday, Semenya, who dominated her sport between 2009 and 2019 despite the scrutiny over her gender, vowed that her battle would continue. \u201cThe fight will never be over,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cAs long as we have injustice, we fight till the court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The South African runner Caster Semenya has called for athletes\u2019 rights to be better protected after Europe\u2019s top human rights court ruled that she had not been given a fair trial when she contested a policy that required her to lower her testosterone levels in order to compete in women\u2019s sport. The decision, handed down<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2482,680,3589,160,3591,356,702,666,3590],"class_list":{"0":"post-10570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-athletes","9":"tag-calls","10":"tag-caster","11":"tag-court","12":"tag-favour","13":"tag-put","14":"tag-rights","15":"tag-rules","16":"tag-semenya"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}