Lerato Mbhiza
THE EFF welcomes Caster Semenya’s victory on her appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The Double Olympic 800m champion was discriminated against by rules requiring her to lower her testosterone levels, the European Court of Human Rights found in a ruling on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old Semenya sued the ECHR over the manner in which Switzerland handled her legal fight against World Athletics’ rules and forcing her to take medication to reduce her testosterone levels as mandated by track and field governing body.
She lost an appeal to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, and three years ago Switzerland’s supreme court held the decision of sport’s top court.
As part of her long-running legal battle, Semenya took her case against Switzerland to the France-based ECHR.
In its ruling on Tuesday, the court found that “the applicant had not been afforded sufficient institutional and procedural safeguards in Switzerland to allow her to have her complaints examined effectively, especially since her complaints concerned substantiated and credible claims of discrimination as a result of her increased testosterone level caused by differences of sex development.”
World Athletics introduced the DSD regulations to create a level playing field in events ranging from 400m to one mile. Semenya was forced to move up to the 5,000m, a distance in which she failed to reach the final in last year’s world championships in Eugene.
In March this year, the federation amended the rules. DSD athletes now have to reduce their amount of blood testosterone to below 2.5 nanomoles per litre, down from the previous level of five, and remain below this threshold for two years.
World Athletics also removed the principle of restricted events for DSD athletes, meaning regulations now cover all distances rather than the previously monitored ones.
The EFF said in a statement it noted how women, especially black women, are often victimised and discriminated against by sports governing bodies.
The EFF congratulated Semenya on her victory, and reaffirmed their belief in her as an elite athlete who has fallen victim to an anti-black world that refuses to accept that a black woman can dominate a sport regulated by a white world.
“We are further saddened by the constant scrutiny into Semenya’s medical history, which is telling of the treatment which women who do not conform to gender stereotypes, often receive”
INSIDE POLITICS
