The Problem of Gender Verification in Sport: Legal, Medical and Ethical Aspects

Equal opportunities for women to participate in sports, including women originally considered male, are accompanied with a debate on the need for gender verification for fear of participation in women’s competitions of female athletes with genetic characteristics more typical of men, which, in some experts’ opinions, gives them unfounded starting advantages. Thus, it is necessary to consider legal, medical and ethical aspects of gender verification in high performance sports. The article analyzes the main alterations developed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Rules for selection of sportswomen with violations of gender formation for participation in competitions. Given the position of the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council, the author considers the issue concerning the compliance of these changes with international principles and norms in the field of human rights protection with due regard to non — discrimination, respect for honor, dignity and integrity of the person. It is concluded that there is considerable uncertainty about admissibility of the use of testosterone level as a universal criterion for gender verification, as well as the availability of direct cause-effect relationship between the corresponding hormonal characteristics and the sports results achieved. The author draws attention to the ethical element of gender verification in sport related to the methods offered by IAAF to assess the sufficient level of femininity and the requirement of its adjustment to artificially determined indicators, even when the principle of confidentiality is declared.

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