“BEN BİR KADINIM VE HIZLIYIM”: AVRUPA İNSAN HAKLARI MAHKEMESİ’NİN CASTER SEMENYA KARARININ KESİŞİMSEL FEMİNİST İNCELEMESİ

Abstract

Güney Afrikalı bir atlet olan Mokgadi Caster Semenya, 2009 yılında Dünya Atletizm Şampiyonası’nda 800 metre koşusunu galip bitirerek küresel bir sansasyon haline gelmiştir. Fakat Semenya’nın üzerinde yoğunlaşan bu ilgi sadece başarısıyla ilgili değildir; aynı yıl Semenya’nın cinsiyetinin “aslında” ne olduğu ile ilgili tartışmalar başlamış ve Semenya bu tartışmaları takriben invazif medikal test ve prosedürlere tabi tutulmuştur. Semenya’nın başarıları ile paralel ilerleyen “sporda cinsiyet” ve “kadın kategorisi” tartışmaları 2018 yılında Dünya Atletizm Birliği’nin yayınlamış olduğu ve Semenya ile birlikte birçok atleti etkileyen DSD (Differences of Sexual Development) Yönetmeliği ile zirveye ulaşmıştır. Bu yönetmelik, spor müsabakalarına kadın kategorisinde katılım ile ilgili testosteron hormonu seviyeleri başta olmak üzere bir dizi koşul getirmektedir. Semenya bu yönetmeliğin getirdiği koşullar çerçevesinde hormon baskılayıcı tedavi görmeyi reddetmiş, bunun sonucu olarak da kazandığı madalyaların geri alınması ve sonraki müsabakalardan men gibi yaptırımlarla karşılaşmıştır. Bu duruma karşı yargısal süreç başlatan Semenya, Spor Tahkim Mahkemesi ve İsviçre Federal Mahkemesi’nde sonuç elde edememesi üzerine Avrupa İnsan Hakları Mahkemesi önüne davasını getirmiştir. Semenya’nın AİHM nezdinde görülen davalarında özel hayatın gizliliğine saygı hakkı, ayrımcılık yasağı, işkence ve kötü muamele yasağı, adil yargılanma hakkı ve etkili başvuru hakkı gibi haklar gündeme gelmiştir. Bu makalede ise Avrupa İnsan Hakları Mahkemesi’nin vermiş olduğu Daire ve Büyük Daire kararları, kesişimsel feminist bir bakış açısıyla değerlendirilmeden önce sporda kadın kategorisinin arka planı, bu kategorileşmede temel alınan parametrelerin ayrımcı yapısı, kadın olmak ve kadınlık bakımından çizilen sınırlar ve bu sınırların dışarıda bıraktığı özneler tartışılacaktır. Bu alt plan üzerinden ise Semenya’nın AİHM önündeki iddiaları, Mahkeme’nin yorumu ve ortaya çıkan tablonun sporda toplumsal cinsiyet eşitliği açısından ne anlama geldiği üzerinde durulacaktır.

Keywords

• feminist hukuk
• spor hukuku
• eşitlik hukuku
• toplumsal cinsiyet ve hukuk
• insan hakları
• avrupa insan hakları mahkemesi
• avrupa insan hakları sözleşmesi
• kesişimsellik

“I AM A WOMAN, AND I AM FAST”: AN INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS’S CASTER SEMENYA JUDGEMENT

Abstract

South African athlete Mokgadi Caster Semenya became a global sensation following her win at the World Championships in Athletics. However, not all of the attention was on her successes; rumors about her “true” gender was gaining ground that same year and she was consequently subjected to a series of invasive medical tests and procedures. The debates on “gender in sports” and “women’s category” were escalating in tandem with Semenya’s outstanding success in middle distance races and reached their peak in 2018 with the adoption of DSD (Differences of Sexual Development) Regulations by World Athletics. The regulations severely affected Semenya among many other athletes and posed a series of conditions category, primarily related to testosterone hormone levels, for eligibility into the women’s category in sports competitions. Semenya, refusing to undergo hormone treatments as imposed by the regulations, was then faced with sanctions such as the revocation of her previous medals and bans from future competitions. Semenya consequently initiated judicial proceedings against these regulations before the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Swiss Federal Supreme Court, however failed to obtain a favorable outcome. She then brought her case before the European Court of Human Rights, and the two judgements (one Chamber and one Grand Chamber) raised issues such as right to respect for private life, prohibition of discrimination, prohibition of torture and degrading treatment, right to a fair trial and right to an effective remedy. This article will first discuss the background of women’s category in sport and the discriminatory nature of the parameters taken as the basis for such categorization, the boundaries drawn around being a woman and the subjects that are excluded by such boundaries. Then, it will analyze in depth both the Chamber and Grand Chamber decisions of the ECtHR from an intersectional feminist perspective. Against this backdrop, Semenya’s claims, the Court’s interpretation, and what the resulting tableau means for the future of gender equality in sports will be examined comprehensively.

Keywords

• feminist jurisprudence
• sports law
• equality law
• law and gender
• human rights
• European court of human rights
• European convention on human rights
• intersectionality

References

1. Bailey M. “Misogynoir in Medical Media: On Caster Semenya and R. Kelly” (2016) 2(2) Catalyst: Feminism 1-31.
2. Buckwald J. “Outrunning Bias: Unmasking the Justifications for Excluding Non-Binary Athletes In Elite Sport” (2021) 44 Harvard Journal of Law and Gender 1-56.
3. Butler J. Gender Trouble (Routeledge, 1999).
4. Buzuvis E. “Hormone Check: Critique of Olympic Rules on Sex and Gender” (2016) 31 Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender and Society 29-56.
5. Cooper EJ. “Gender Testing in Athletic Competitions - Human Rights Violations: Why Michael Phelps is Praised and Caster Semenya is Chastised” (2010) 14(1) Journal of Gender, Race and Justice 233-264.
6. Crenshaw K. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics” (1989) 1989(1) University of Chicago Legal Forum 139-167.
7. de Beauvoir S. The Second Sex (1st edn New York 2011).
8. Dworkin SL. ve Cooky C. “Sport, Sex Segregation, and Sex Testing: Critical Reflections on This Unjust Marriage” (2012) 12(7) The American Journal of Bioethics 21-23.

9. Dworkin SL., Lock Swarr A. ve Cooky C. “(In)Justice in Sport: The Treatment of South African Track Star Caster Semenya” (2013) 39(1) Feminist Studies 40-69.
10. Ekinci B. “Feminist Teori Bakımından Anayasa Mahkemesi Kararları” (Doktora Tezi, Galatasaray Üniversitesi 2024).
11. Elsas LJ., Ljungqvist, A., Ferguson-Smith MA., Simpson JL., Genel M., Carlson AS., Ferris E., de la Chapelle A. ve Ehrhardt AA. “Gender Verification of Female Athletes” (2000) 2(4) Genetics in Medicine 249-254.
12. Epstein D. The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance (1st edn, Portfolio 2014).
13. Erikainen S. Gender Verification and the Making of the Female Body in Sport: A History of the Present (1st edn, Routeledge 2020).
14. Evola M., Krstić I. ve Rabadán F. “Feminist Judgements” Dragica Vujadinović, Mareike Fröhlich, Thomas Giegerich (ed.) Gender-Competent Legal Education, (Springer Textbooks in Law 2023) 143 -181.
15. Foucault M. “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History” The Foucault Reader içinde Paul Rabinow (ed.) (Pantheon Books 1984).
16. Garland D. “What is a ‘‘history of the present’’? On Foucault’s genealogies and their critical preconditions’ (2014) 16(4) Punishment & Society 365-384.
17. Kara D. “İsviçre Federal Mahkemesi Kararları Işığında Spor Tahkim Mahkemesi Kararlarının Kamu Düzenine Aykırılık Sebebiyle İptali” (2021) 16(183) Terazi Hukuk Dergisi 2161- 2171
18. Kerch M. “The Misplaced Burdens of 'Gender Equality' in Caster Semenya v IAAF: The Court of Arbitration for Sport Attempts Human Rights Adjudication” (2019) 66(3) International Sports Law Review 66-76.
19. - “The Semenya Judgment And Women’s Eligibility In Sport: Nothing Changes, Everything Does!” StrasbourgObservers (03.10.2025) https://strasbourgobservers.com/2025/10/03/the-semenya-judgment-and-womens-eligibility-in-sport-nothing-changes-everything-does/; Erişim Tarihi 05.10.2025. - Loland S. “Caster Semenya, Athlete Classification, and Fair Equality of Opportunity in Sport” (2020) 40(9) Journal of Medical Ethics 584-590.
20. MacKinnon CA. Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law (Harvard University Press, 1987)
21. - Towards A Feminist Theory of The State (1st edn Cambridge, 1991). - - “Exploring Transgender Law and Politics”, SignsJournal, 2023, https://signsjournal.org/exploring-transgender-law-and-politics/. - McClintock A. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Context (Routledge 1995).
22. Messner MA. “Sports and Male Domination: The Female Athlete as Contested Ideological Terrain” (1988) 5(3) Sociology of Sport Journal 197-211.
23. Özkan S. “Haksız Rekabet mi, İnterfobi mi?: Spor Tahkim Mahkemesi’nin Caster Semenya Kararına İlişkin Bir İnceleme” (2021) 2 Maltepe Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi 229-258.
24. Pastor A. “Unwarranted and Invasive Scruntiy: Caster Semenya, Sex-Gender Testing and the Production of Woman in ‘Women’s’ Track and Field” (2019) 122 Feminist Review 1-15.
25. Pielke R., Tucker R. ve Boye E. “Scientific Integrity and the IAAF Testosterone Regulations” (2019) 19 The International Sports Law Journal 18-26.
26. Schultz J. “Caster Semenya and the "Question of Too": Sex Testing in Elite Women's Sport and the Issue of Advantage” (2012) 63(2) Quest 228-243.
27. Tate SA. Black Women’s Bodies and the Nation: Race, Gender and Culture (New York, 2015).
28. Vertinsky P. ve Captain G. “More Myth than History: American Culture and Representations of the Black Female's Athletic Ability” (1998) 25(3) Journal of Sport History 532-561.
29. Wiater P. “Human Rights Breakthrough in Sports Law?: The ECtHR Chamber Judgment in Semenya v. Switzerland”, Verfassungsblog (26.07.2023) https://verfassungsblog.de/a- human-rights-breakthrough-in-sports-law/.
30. Winkler M. ve Gilleri G. “Of Athletes, Bodies and Rules: Making Sense of ‘Caster Semenya’” (2021) 49(4) Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 644-660.
31. Yılmaz AG. Adopting a Feminist Legal Perspective in Adjudication: A Comparative Analysis of the Judgments of the Constitutional Court of Turkey and European Court of Human Rights (Onİki Levha, 2024).