Caster: SA government goes to UN
SOUTH AFRICAN Olympic gold medallist Caster Semenya’s battle with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) received a welcome boost yesterday with Sports Minister Tokozile Xasa’s announcement that the government would take up the matter with the UN.
This while Athletics SA (ASA) is set to lodge an appeal at the Swiss Federal Tribunal to overturn a Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) ruling on the controversial female eligibility rules. Her department would “intensify the international lobby and approach the UN General Assembly to sanction the IAAF for violating International Human Rights Instruments”, Xasa said yesterday.
ASA applied for two of the arbitrators to recuse themselves since they handled the earlier case of Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, according to the department.
ASA will argue the scientific, medical and legal case they presented before the CAS did not match the outcome.
“The pertinent legal questions that the court should have addressed were not addressed,” the department said.
“The court simply gave the unfettered latitude to the IAAF to do as it pleases. For instance, it has not been answered as to how the IAAF will implement the regulations and how ethical issues will be addressed.
“The government will also have to mobilise and educate society on the key arguments and tenets of the case,” the department said.
“To this end, the government will make available information to the public and also develop online information instruments to empower the public on this key matter.
“The minister was also pleased with the commitment by ASA to lobby national athletics associations in other jurisdictions to sign a petition, petitioning the IAAF to rescind the regulations and to lobby against the current executive of the IAAF.”
The CAS ruled in favour of the IAAF in Semenya’s challenge to the regulations that would require athletes with differences of sex development (DSD) to lower their testosterone concentration to below a specified level.
DSD athletes will have to lower their testosterone concentration to five
nanomoles per litre of blood if they want to compete in the 400m to 1 500m events on an international level. Semenya has made it clear she would not be complying with the regulations that went into effect on May 8.
The IAAF last week said that because it was a private body it was not “subject to human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the European Convention on Human Rights”.
“Human rights is an umbrella term for a wide array of rights that it is broadly agreed all humans inherently possess,” the IAAF said.
“But that does not mean that those rights are absolute, inviolable or sacrosanct.
“Discrimination or unequal treatment may still be lawful if the rule/ policy is a necessary and proportionate means of achieving a legitimate objective.”
The CAS panel ruled that although the regulations were discriminatory towards DSD athletes, it was “necessary, reasonable and proportionate”… to preserve the integrity of female athletics.