Caster Semenya’s right to a fair hearing was violated by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court when she lost a 2020 appeal against World Athletics regulations that effectively barred her from competing, Europe’s top court has ruled.
The double 800m Olympic champion won a partial victory at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in her long legal battle over athletics’ sex eligibility rules.
Semenya, 34, was born with differences of sexual development (DSD) and has been unable to compete in the 800m since World Athletics brought in rules in 2019 restricting testosterone levels for track events from 400m up to the mile.
The South African middle distance runner believes World Athletics has shown discrimination against athletes with DSD by insisting they reduce testosterone levels in order to be eligible.Athletics’ governing body insists the rules, which in 2023 were expanded to cover all female track and field events, are needed to ensure fair competition and to protect the female category.
Semenya was the Olympic champion over 800m in 2012 and 2016.
In 2019, she unsuccessfully challenged World Athletics’ rules at the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
In July 2023 the ECHR ruled in favour of Semenya in a case related to testosterone levels in female athletes.
The case at the ECHR was not against sporting bodies or DSD rules, but specifically against Switzerland’s government for not protecting Semenya’s rights and dates back to a Swiss Supreme Court ruling from 2020.
Switzerland’s government requested the matter be referred to the ECHR’s Grand Chamber, which has now found that the Swiss ruling “had not satisfied the requirement of particular rigour” under Article 6 (right to a fair hearing) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The judges said the Swiss court’s review “had fallen short” of that requirement.