Sport (page 1 of 3)

Article about access to sport, and competing in sporting activities. Read our briefing page.

IHRA logotype

Statement on 10 News Reporting on Intersex Women in Sport

At the heart of violence against the intersex community are people who feel they get to police and fix other people’s bodies. Caster Semenya, born a woman, raised a woman, who has demonstrated nothing but hard-earned excellence in her field is harmed by irresponsible reporting. Sporting codes that are intended to accommodate transgender women in…
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Intersex people in sport

Submission to the OHCHR on women and girls in sport

IHRA has made a formal submission to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in response to a questionnaire seeking information to fulfil its mandate in Human Rights Council resolution 40/5 on the elimination of discrimination against women and girls in sport.

The unrelenting gaze

CAS decision on Caster Semenya: This is what injustice looks like

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has issued a press release outlining a majority decision against Caster Semenya and Athletics South Africa in their case with the IAAF. Caster Semenya is a Black South African cisgender woman, born with a variation of sex characteristics, seeking to compete in the sex category she was assigned at…
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Intersex people in sport

We welcome UN Human Rights Council resolution on sport

Overnight in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council adopted without a vote a resolution on the elimination of discrimination against women and girls in sport. The resolution responds to the situation of Caster Semenya, a cisgender women, born with a variation of sex characteristics, who is the target of 2018 IAAF regulations. Those regulations aim…
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a pair of sports shoes

Sport

A briefing on issues affecting people with innate variations of sex characteristics in sport settings.

ACT report "Everyone Can Play"

Including intersex people in sport: a response to an ACT report

For a complete overview on issues relating to intersex people in sport, read our briefing paper on sport The ACT Human Rights Commission has published a guide to the inclusion of transgender and intersex people in sport. Unfortunately, the guide homogenises intersex and transgender populations in a way that both makes intersex inclusion far more…
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Darlington retreat

Darlington Statement

The Darlington Statement is a joint consensus statement by Australian and Aotearoa/New Zealand intersex organisations and independent advocates, agreed in March 2017. It sets out the priorities and calls to action by the intersex human rights movement in our countries.

Text saying "Should the 'intersex' athlete be ALLOWED to compete as a woman?"

Body shaming is an intersex issue

Body shaming is an intersex issue, perhaps even more than any other issue. This post intersperses quotations about intersex infants and children with quotations about the bodies of public figures.

London Olympics photo by Farrukh

Reporting on the Olympics

Much of the reporting on some women athletes participating in the Rio Olympics is insupportable. It makes assumptions about their bodies, sex, gender identity and expressions that is deeply concerning. Much reporting fails to acknowledge the lack of scientific evidence for body policing by sporting institutions, and the deep personal cost of such assumptions, which…
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