The South African Parliament has joined the African Human Rights Commission and other institutions to help Caster Semenya in her fight for justice and equality.
Western Cape, South Africa (17 November 2020) – The South African Parliament passed a Motion Without Notice – tabled by the African National Congress – which not only condemns the actions of World Athletics against Ms Semenya as an “injustice and violation of human rights” but also resolves that Parliament will do “everything in [their] power” to assist Ms Semenya in her fight for justice and equality.
“We greatly appreciate the support of the Parliament of South Africa, the highest legislative body in South Africa, and commend their willingness to take action by resolving to help protect the rights of a fellow South African.”
Further, all African Human Rights Commissions have endorsed their support for Mokgadi Caster Semenya. This follows on from the resolution taken by the UN Human Rights Council on 21 March 2019 which recognised that Black Women are repeatedly discriminated against in Sports across the globe.
“The support of the Human Rights Commissions on the continent is invaluable, and we especially thank the South African Human Rights Commission and the South African Commission for Gender Equality for leading the fight. We hope that the support of our fellow Africans, as shown at the sitting of the 67th session of the African Commission for Human and People Rights, will see a similar endorsement is given by the Global Alliance of Human Rights Commissions.
With growing support from institutions and bodies across the globe, we remain hopeful that World Athletics will see the error it has made and reverse the prohibitive rules which restrict Ms Semenya from competing.”
The increasing number of institutions that have shown their support for Ms Semenya reinforces that it is not acceptable to require a black, or any other woman, to either have invasive surgery or unethical hormonal treatment to curtail natural biological functions, to compete.
“We remain inspired by Ms Semenya’s indomitable spirit and will remain steadfast in our stand against discrimination until she is allowed to run free from persecution. To paraphrase Lewis Hamilton this past weekend, everyone must do their part in helping to create a more equal world, and we thank those who have been helping us do just that with Ms Semenya.
We will be taking World Athletics to the European Court of Human Rights, and public support goes a long way to help show how the rules from World Athletics are against public interest. As such we encourage everyone to help create a more equal world by showing their support on social media and by putting pressure on their sporting bodies to embrace and apply internationally accepted human rights values in their activities and rules.”
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