The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday that Switzerland violeted South African runner Caster Semanya’s right to a fair hearing as she sought to combat rules that required her to lower her testosterone levels to compete. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo
The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that Switzerland violated South African runner Caster Semenya’s right to a fair hearing over her challenge to rules requiring her to take hormones to compete.
The ECHR’s Grand Chamber ruled 15-2 that as a South African national, Semenya has no personal connection to Switzerland and thus she falls outside Swiss jurisdiction in such matters.
It ruled that the Swiss judicial system had “fallen short” of providing Semenya with a “rigorous judicial review that was commensurate with the seriousness of the personal rights at issue, by the only domestic court with jurisdiction to carry out such a task” after the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport and Swiss Federal Supreme Court rejected her challenges to the requirements.
The ruling will likely send the case back to Swiss federal court.
Semenya, who was born with Differences of Sexual Development, which causes her to produce levels of testosterone greater than the average for a woman, had been barred from competing in the 800-meter event since 2019 after World Athletics set limits on testosterone for competitors.
The ECHR previously found that the World Athletics rules amounted to discrimination against Semenya.
