The Supreme Court of Switzerland has held that the “Testosterone rules” as they are famously known, do not in any way contravene or violate women’s rights and therefore could not be rendered null and void as pleaded by Caster Semenya the appellant in that matter.
It was and still is Caster Semenya’s argument that subjecting women athletes to surveillance or medical interventions violates their human rights as this targets a subset of women with variations of their sex characteristics and naturally occurring elevated testosterone levels.
The impugned regulations dictate that women athlete’s bodies shall be forcefully subjected to public scrutiny and those that seem suspect will have to undergo medical examination or be forced out of the competition. Semenya contends that these regulations have no scientific basis upon which they are hinged as it has not been proven that women with naturally occurring higher-than-typical testosterone have a performance advantage in athletics. In addition to this, she stated that this regulations are discriminatory in nature as men are not subjected to such kinds of surveillance or medical interventions.
“I will continue to fight for the human rights of female athletes, both on the track and off the track, until we can all run free the way we were born…”
Caster Semenya while commenting about the ruling.
Despite the fact that she had lost the appeal, Caster Semenya vowed to keep on fighting until all women athletes are free.
