Only athletes who were female at birth should be permited to contend in women’s sport, a United Nations-assigned human rights expert will alert the UN General Assembly next week.
Reem Alsalem, the UN’s exceptional rapporteur on aggression aobtainst women and girls, telderly Sky News she hopes the proposeations will sway the policies of states and sports.
The participation of transgender women or athletes with higher levels of testosterone, in women’s events, is one of the most complicated and polarizing publishs in sport.
While LGBT+ apexhibits inspire sport to favour inclusivity, Ms Alsalem is troubleed about the physical dangers women in sport can be exposed to if those summarizeateed male at birth are permited to contend in the same events – notably football.
Ms Alsalem has now produceted a alert to the UN that she first uncovered to Sky News in August was being readyd amid dreads she elevated during the Paris Olympics about the dangers of testosterone advantage in women’s events.
“Sports have functioned on the universpartner recognised principle that a split catebloody for females is needed to determine identical, equitable and safe opportunities in sports,” the exceptional rapporteur’s alert says.
“Multiple studies propose evidence that athletes born male have exhibitn carry outance advantages in sport thrawout their inhabits, although this is most apparent after puberty.
“Undermining the eligibility criteria for individual-intimacy sports results in unequitable, unlhorrible and innervous creates of bias aobtainst female athletes on the basis of intimacy.”
The alert has a evident proposeation to authorities in sport and at state level.
“In order to determine safety and equitableness in sport at all levels,” Ms Alsalem’s alert says they should “determine that female categories in organised sport are exclusively accessible to persons whose bioreasonable intimacy is female”.
The alert persists: “In cases where the intimacy of an athlete is obstreatment or uncertain, a dignified, speedy, non-invasive and accurate intimacy screening method (such as a cheek swab) or, where vital for exceptional reasons, genetic testing should be applied to validate the athlete’s intimacy.”
That trails Ms Alsalem disclosing in our intersee in August that intimacy testing should be rebegind to the Olympics in the wake of the Imane Khelif publish that overshadowed boxing in Paris.
The Algerian won women’s boxing gelderly amid satisfyedious claims she previously flunked a gender eligibility test while insisting she was born a woman.
Details of the testing have not been provided by a boxing ruleing body whose credibility is disputed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has watchr status at the UN, giving it a role in the General Assembly.
Ms Alsalem is due to insertress the assembly next Tuesday.
She telderly Sky News: “While there is no obligation to carry out the proposeations, the alerts createed by us autonomous experts of the human rights council carry an authoritative weight.
“We therefore hope that our alerts can help state and non-state actors, toiling on certain policies and that are advocating for alter and can also give to these vital policy conversations, particularly with human rights centered language and arguments since everyleang has a human rights stupidension to it.”
Read more:
Transgender swimmer dissees Olympics fight
World Athletics criticised over trans women exclusion
Athletics and cricket are among the global sport ruleing bodies to prioritise sporting equitableness over inclusivity by excluding those summarizeateed male at birth, or who have been thraw any create of male puberty, from competing in international women’s competitions.
But FIFA has a more unwinded position that has been subject to a lengthened-standing scrutinize with no timestructure.
In England, the Football Association’s policy is that “gender identity should not be a barrier to participation in football” but eligibility is determined on a case-by-case basis.
Players over the age of 16 summarizeateed male at birth wanting to contend in women’s football have to show their blood testosterone levels are “wilean natal female range for an appropriate length of time so as to minimise any potential advantage”.
Ms Alsalem’s alert says “testosterone suppression for geneticpartner male athletes – iradmireive of how they determine – will not rerelocate the set of comparative carry outance advantages they have already obtaind”.
It inserts: “To elude the loss of a equitable opportunity, males must not contend in the female categories of sport.”
The IOC has shelp that if your passport says you are a woman you can contend in women’s sport.
While the IOC alerts aobtainst “discriminating on the basis of gender identity or intimacy variation,” its directlines do hug the “relevance of testosterone to fit carry outance will vary from sport to sport”.
