Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 40/5 on the elimination of discrimination against women and girls in sport. In her report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights elaborates on relevant international human rights norms and standards and the corresponding obligations of States and the responsibilities of sporting bodies towards women and girl athletes, identifies possible gaps in the protection of the human rights of women and girls in sports and provides conclusions and recommendations aimed at enhancing such protection.
Introduction
1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 40/5, in which the Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on the intersection of race and gender discrimination in sport, including in policies, regulations and practices of sporting bodies, and elaborating on relevant international human rights norms and standards, and to present the report to the Council at its forty-fourth session.
2. A call for submissions for the present report was issued in November 2019. Twenty- one submissions were received from Member States, 1 civil society organizations 2 and others.3 The report draws on these submissions and on recent findings of United Nations agencies and human rights bodies, regional organizations, non-governmental organizations and academic research institutes.
3. Chapter II of the report provides background on the intersection of race and gender discrimination in sport. Chapter III gives an overview of relevant international human rights norms and standards, and the corresponding obligations of States and responsibilities of sporting bodies towards women and girl athletes. Chapter IV focuses on the impact of female eligibility regulations on the enjoyment of human rights. Chapter V identifies possible gaps in the protection of the human rights of women and girls in sport. Chapter VI presents conclusions and recommendations aimed at enhancing such protection.
4. Taking into account the concerns raised in Human Rights Council resolution 40/5, the present report provides an analysis of the human rights impact of sports regulations and practices that require women and girl athletes with so-called differences in sex development – meaning variations in sex characteristics4 – whose bodies produce specified (higher-than- typical) levels of endogenous testosterone and are sensitive to androgens, to medically reduce their testosterone levels.
RECOMMENDATIONS
51. While sport is often an instrument for promoting peace, development, solidarity and human rights,101 United Nations human rights experts and activists have also noted that sport is often characterized by inequality and discrimination within and across national borders.102
52. Despite the fact that some actions have been taken by international bodies, States and sporting bodies to respond to discrimination and to promote equal rights, the overall picture remains one of continuing, pervasive inequalities in women’s and girls’ access to sporting resources and activities at the local, national and transnational levels.
53. In addition, regulations regarding female eligibility to compete in sport raise concerns about the ability of all athletes to enjoy their rights. Private sports bodies and their rules and regulations dominate the current global and corporatized structure of sport governance. Concerns have been raised in this context indicating that women and girl athletes may face serious obstacles to accessing effective remedies and seeking full redress for violations of their human rights. In accordance with their obligations under international human rights law, States should ensure that non-State actors, including sport governing bodies, respect human rights in their own regulatory regimes and are accountable for breaches.
54. States have obligations to remove obstacles for women and girls in accessing sport, including social, cultural and economic barriers. To this end, they should address discrimination in sport on the basis of gender, race and other grounds by:
(a) Collecting data and providing analyses on the structural barriers to access to sport for diverse women and girls;
(b) Ensuring that their national anti-discrimination law is adequate to address discrimination on the basis of gender, as well as compounded discrimination on the basis of gender and race or other prohibited grounds, including discrimination on the basis of particular intersex variations or on the basis of sex characteristics. Such domestic law, in conformity with international human rights obligations, needs to be applicable to and in practice be applied to sport governing bodies;
(c) Reviewing laws, policies and programmes with a view to addressing barriers to equal access to sport for women and girls;
(d) Ensuring access to adequate and effective remedies that can provide full redress for discrimination in sport;
(e) Establishing national standards on non-discrimination in sport and providing comprehensive, age-appropriate support for undertaking sporting activities at the local level;
(f) Integrating in national plans of action analyses of discrimination and other human rights abuses in sport based on gender, race and innate variations in sex characteristics, thereby ensuring coordination and adequate resourcing of related activities – including awareness-raising and capacity-building of relevant actors, accountability for harm caused and redress for victims;
(g) Collecting and publishing data on the number and types of discrimination and abuse, specifically data disaggregated by race, gender and with attention to marginalized communities, while providing for the security of those reporting.
55. States should prohibit the enforcement of regulations that pressure athletes to undergo unnecessary medical interventions as a precondition for participating in sport and should review and investigate the alleged enforcement of such regulations.
56. States should ensure that athletes know their rights. They should also ensure that athletes have access to legal remedy and have the legal capacity and social support to act, collectively as well as individually, to protect their rights and seek and receive all the information they need to make decisions at every level of their engagement in sport.
57. States should consider taking collective action on behalf of athletes, including with the involvement of sporting bodies, to address the gaps in accountability arising from the practices and policies of sporting bodies.
58. States and sporting bodies should establish a process to review rules, regulations, contracts and agreements to ensure their compliance with international human rights norms and standards, paying particular attention to the need to protect from discrimination and to provide adequate remedies, including in respect of arbitration clauses, so that they do not violate the rights of athletes.
59. In light of their distinct obligations and responsibilities, States and sporting bodies should work together to promote the inclusion of women and girls in sporting activities, paying particular attention to women and girls marginalized on account of their race, nationality, immigration or refugee status, ethnicity, religion, HIV or other
health status, disability, maternity/parental status or gender/gender identity or sexual orientation, and create equality-affirming programmes and policies by:
(a) Ensuring the inclusion of and cooperation with organizations led by intersex persons in efforts to include more and a greater diversity of women and girls’ sport;
(b) Carrying out, in conjunction with athletes and their associations, public education campaigns to counter gender-stereotyped and racist attitudes and using all appropriate measures to address negative and stereotypical portrayals of women and girl athletes in the media, paying particular attention to pervasive attitudes to appropriate norms of femininity.
60. States and sporting bodies should ensure that women and girls, and their representative organizations, including athletes’ associations and commissions, are consulted on laws and policies, particularly those that have an impact on their rights.
61. Sporting bodies should commit themselves to protecting and respecting internationally recognized human rights. They should meet their responsibilities to protect rights and minimize harms to rights by adopting human rights policies that apply to athletes, events and competitions (from bidding processes to game time), fans, journalists and others. They should also commit themselves to reviewing and revising their policies, including eligibility regulations. This includes:
(a) Putting in place transparent monitoring processes to assess negative impacts on rights as a step towards meeting their responsibilities;
(b) Establishing practices of due diligence in tracking and responding to reports of discrimination and abuse;
(c) Ensuring that athletes have access to all relevant information on their rights and on the steps that can be taken to ensure their rights, expose abuse and hold those responsible to account.
62. Sport governing bodies should protect athletes’ right to remedy by not restricting their access to justice mechanisms. Moreover, they should act to ensure effective forms of redress that conform with international human rights law and that are equally accessible to all athletes regardless of resources and geographic location.
63. Sport governing bodies should ensure that the heightened protections for athletes under the age of 18 provided by the international framework for child rights are in place in sport governing bodies policies, rules and regulations.
64. Sport governing bodies should review, revise and revoke eligibility rules and regulations that have negative effects on athletes’ rights, including those addressing athletes with intersex variations.
65. The Human Rights Council should consider remaining apprised of these issues, and, in particular, consider a review of the interactions between private and public law in sports, with due regard for the independence of sporting bodies and the pre-eminent duty of States to respect, protect and fulfil rights.
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