United Nations human rights activist calls for equality and stronger protections for women and girls in sports

The United Nations addressed the information of biologic men competing successful women's sports arsenic a quality rights contented during a meeting of the General Assembly connected October 8.

Reem Alsalem, peculiar rapporteur connected unit against women and girls, spoke with Fox News Digital astir the study she gave to each 193 UN subordinate countries, which advocated for the information of women and girls successful sports.

"It's not a taste issue, it's not an idiosyncratic issue, it's a quality rights issue," Alsalem told Fox News Digital. Her study looks astatine each forms of unit that women and girls astir the satellite acquisition erstwhile playing sports, which includes the opening up of the pistillate class to biologic males.

"The primordial interest successful the sporting satellite is astir competition, is astir winning, is astir the estimation of the jock and the estimation of the sporting organization, truthful thing that whitethorn undermine that gets pushed nether the rug and is not addressed oregon dealt with the mode it should be," she said. 

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Reem Alsalem, peculiar rapporteur connected unit against women and girls astatine the United Nations, advocates for the information of women and girls successful sports. (ADF International)

Alsalem said she looked astatine the "perpetrators of violence" against women successful sports, which tin see coaches and chap athletes, arsenic portion of her report, and made recommendations to each applicable stakeholders, including states, sports bodies, schools, arsenic good arsenic women and girls who vie successful sports. 

In the U.S. and different Western countries, Alsalem argued that the policies that let biologic men to vie successful women's sports are "denying them [women] their femaleness." 

"They are saying that we don't admit enactment arsenic being rooted successful biology and therefore, we volition let anyone to vie successful a pistillate class if they are biologically male, but place arsenic females," she said. "So, biologic enactment arsenic a determinant of the pistillate class is not important, what matters is however you consciousness astir it."

"In Afghanistan, [for example], erstwhile they exclude women, it's precise wide to them that they're excluding those women due to the fact that they are women and due to the fact that of their pistillate sex," she continued. "So, ironically, successful galore ways, they cognize what that pistillate is, and they're not debating the crushed wherefore they are discriminating and persecuting women. It's due to the fact that they are females, they're seen arsenic the lesser enactment and each the approaches to that, the misogyny and the patriarchal ideas that situation that."

In her report, Alsalem calls for the instauration of unfastened categories successful sports contention and the instauration of non-invasive and confidential enactment screenings to guarantee inclusive participation, arsenic good arsenic fairness, information and dignity for pistillate athletes. 

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Alsalem warned that biologic men competing successful women's sports is "denying them [women] their femaleness." (Reem Alsalem)

But, Alsalem argued that the contented extends beyond contention arsenic it opens up backstage women's spaces to those individuals who are biologically antheral but place arsenic female, including bathrooms and locker rooms extracurricular of sports. She besides said the contented is not unsocial to the U.S., describing it arsenic a "worrisome trend" she has observed successful a fig of countries. 

"Women are saying ‘we privation our pistillate spaces, biologic enactment is cardinal to our experiences arsenic women and our experiences of favoritism and violence, but erstwhile we accidental that, we are being punished, we suffer jobs, we are attacked online and offline, we are threatened, we are adjacent sued successful courts, and we are vilified,'" she said. 

Alsalem besides mentioned the Title IX reforms enactment distant by the Biden medication arsenic limiting opportunities for women nether a instrumentality that was archetypal enacted to support them. 

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was primitively a 37-word proviso barring schools that person national backing from discriminating against students connected the ground of sex, ensuring adjacent accidental for women successful the acquisition setting.

The Biden Administration, nether Title IX, has expanded the explanation of enactment favoritism and harassment to see sex individuality and intersexual orientation, which athletes, experts and activists person argued volition person important implications for women-only spaces. 

Alsalem publically warned the Biden Administration in December 2023 that altering the explanation of what it means to beryllium a pistillate nether Title IX would effect successful a "loss of privacy, an accrued hazard of carnal injury, heightened vulnerability to intersexual harassment and voyeurism, arsenic good arsenic a much predominant and accumulated intelligence distress owed to the nonaccomplishment of privateness and just and adjacent sporting and world opportunities."    

For example, she said that nether the caller changes to Title IX, men identifying arsenic women would present beryllium eligible for scholarships antecedently reserved for pistillate athletes. 

"Females successful athletics are getting specified a tiny portion of the cake," she said. "They person truthful fewer opportunities, that by opening those fewer opportunities present to males, you're reducing their opportunities adjacent more." 

"That is not lone truthful unjust and unfair, but is simply a practice of that favoritism against women due to the fact that they are women oregon due to the fact that they are girls," she added. "It's a caller manifestation of the patriarchy."

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United Nations Special Rapporteur connected unit against women, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem (L) and UN Human Rights Officer Orlagh McCann (R) code a property league successful Ankara connected July 27, 2022. (ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)

After Alsalem presented her study astatine the UN, U.S. Adviser for the Third Committee, Dylan Lang, responded to Alsalem's findings successful which helium admitted that women and girls look challenges, specified arsenic violence, harassment, and discrimination, but criticized her "demeaning connection to notation to transgender persons."

"Your study appropriately says that each persons, irrespective of their sex identity, are entitled to unrecorded a beingness escaped from discrimination," helium said. "Unfortunately, successful that aforesaid report, you erroneously conflate transgender persons with intersex persons oregon others with people occurring variations successful enactment characteristics, and usage demeaning connection to notation to transgender persons."

Lang, past went connected to praise American pistillate athletes "who basal for equality and information successful sports," including the USA Gymnastics athletes who spoke retired astir maltreatment they experienced astatine the hands of squad doc Larry Nasser, Simone Biles' interruption from gymnastics, which highlighted the value of intelligence health, and Olympian and activistic Megan Rapinoe who fought for adjacent wage for women U.S. shot players. 

Rapinoe, notably, was among the pistillate athletes who signed a missive to the NCAA, urging the enactment not to enact a argumentation that would barroom trans athletes from competing successful women’s sports. She was asked successful July 2023 if she would enactment a trans pistillate playing connected the United States Women’s National Team, adjacent if it meant replacing a biologic female. 

"That’s the portion of the statement that’s inactive highly transphobic," Rapinoe said successful response. "I spot trans women arsenic existent women."

In June 2024, a newsman asked Rapinoe: "Your U.S. women’s shot squad famously mislaid to precocious schoolhouse boys. Do you truly deliberation it’s just for these aforesaid boys to beryllium competing successful girls’ sports?" She ignored the question. 

Alsalem responded to the U.S. Adviser, arguing that the "demeaning language" successful which she referred to males who place arsenic women arsenic precisely that, arsenic "factually correct."

"Human rights connection and principles indispensable proceed to beryllium accordant with subject and facts, including biologic ones," she said. "Multiple studies person offered grounds that athletes calved antheral person proven show advantages successful sports passim their life, though this is astir evident aft puberty." 

"At the aforesaid time, nondiscrimination based connected enactment is recognized successful each large planetary quality rights agreements and … enactment indispensable beryllium understood successful its mean meaning to mean biologic enactment and conflating enactment and sex individuality passim the instauration of a ineligible enactment class has been confusing and problematic."

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Alsalem told Fox News Digital that she has discouraged the usage of the word "culture war" due to the fact that she believes it diminishes the information of women and girls successful sports to a manner contented oregon ideological issue. 

"It reduces the value and what is astatine stake," she said. "It's a rights issue, truthful I would similar that we telephone it a rights warfare oregon a conflict astir rights due to the fact that it is astir thing truly important and halfway to the dignity and rights of women."

"When we usage the connection ‘culture war,’ the representation it evokes is that those who asseverate the rights to female-only categories oregon spaces are radical that are possibly culturally backward oregon conservative, but it has thing to bash with being wide oregon conservative," she said. "It has everything to bash with arguing for your quality rights entitlements, you are close to inquire for this, you're not being backward oregon inconsiderate."