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 one-of-a-kind rapporteur on presentility aachievest women and girls, tancigo in Sky News she hopes the recommfinishations will affect the policies of states and sports.
The participation of transgfinisher women or athletes with higher levels of testosterone, in women’s events, is one of the most complicated and splitting publishs in sport.
While LGBT+ helps encourage sport to favour inclusivity, Ms Alsalem is troubleed about the physical dangers women in sport can be exposed to if those spreaded male at birth are permited to contend in the same events – notably football.
Ms Alsalem has now surrfinisherted a alert to the UN that she first discignoreed to Sky News in August was being setd amid troubles she liftd during the Paris Olympics about the dangers of testosterone achieve in women’s events.
“Sports have functioned on the universassociate recognised principle that a split catebloody for females is demanded to uncover identical, equitable and shielded opportunities in sports,” the one-of-a-kind rapporteur’s alert says.
“Multiple studies recommend evidence that athletes born male have shown carry outance achieves in sport thrawout their inhabits, although this is most apparent after puberty.
“Undermining the eligibility criteria for individual-intimacy sports results in unequitable, unlterrible and inanxious creates of prejudice aachievest female athletes on the basis of intimacy.”
The alert has a evident recommfinishation to authorities in sport and at state level.
“In order to uncover shieldedty and equitableness in sport at all levels,” Ms Alsalem’s alert says they should “uncover 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 unacunderstandledged or uncertain, a dignified, speedy, non-invasive and accurate intimacy screening method (such as a cheek swab) or, where essential for exceptional reasons, genetic testing should be applied to verify the athlete’s intimacy.”
That chases Ms Alsalem disclosing in our intersee in August that intimacy testing should be stand ford to the Olympics in the wake of the Imane Khelif publish that overshadowed boxing in Paris.
The Algerian won women’s boxing gancigo in amid satisfyedious claims she previously flunked a gfinisher eligibility test while insisting she was born a woman.
Details of the testing have not been provided by a boxing regulateing 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 tancigo in Sky News: “While there is no obligation to carry out the recommfinishations, the alerts originateed 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, laboring on certain policies and that are advocating for alter and can also donate to these meaningful policy conversations, particularly with human rights concentrateed language and arguments since everyskinnyg has a human rights unwiseension to it.”
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Athletics and cricket are among the global sport regulateing bodies to prioritise sporting equitableness over inclusivity by excluding those spreaded 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 extfinished-standing appraise with no timestructure.
In England, the Football Association’s policy is that “gfinisher identity should not be a barrier to participation in football” but eligibility is remendd on a case-by-case basis.
Players over the age of 16 spreaded male at birth wanting to contend in women’s football have to show their blood testosterone levels are “wiskinny natal female range for an appropriate length of time so as to minimise any potential achieve”.
Ms Alsalem’s alert says “testosterone suppression for geneticassociate male athletes – iresteemive of how they acunderstandledge – will not omit the set of comparative carry outance achieves they have already achieved”.
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 aachievest “discriminating on the basis of gfinisher identity or intimacy variation,” its guidelines do adchoose the “relevance of testosterone to fit carry outance will vary from sport to sport”.