The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

Semenya: ECHR confirms Switzerland violated athlete’s rights

Switzerland condemned in the Semenya case
Switzerland condemned in the Semenya case Keystone-SDA

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has upheld a 2023 decision that Switzerland violated the rights of South African athlete Caster Semenya.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The judges found that the hyperandrogenic athlete’s right to a fair trial had been violated by Switzerland. As a result, the Federal Court’s review of the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision on appeal did not achieve the required level of attention.

Two years ago, in a chamber decision, the ECHR upheld Semenya’s complaint on several points. In particular, it found that the World Athletics (WA) rules, upheld by the Swiss courts, violated the athlete’s right to privacy.

The rules at issue require women with excess male hormones (hyperandrogens) to take female hormones in order to take part in competitions recognised by WA. Switzerland appealed the 2023 decision to the Grand Chamber of the ECHR.

More

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch

Popular Stories

News

Karin Keller-Sutter makes the case for gender equality at the UN

More

Foreign Affairs

Karin Keller-Sutter makes the case for gender equality at the UN

This content was published on Gender equality is a universal right and a catalyst for economic development, Karin Keller-Sutter told the United Nations in New York on Monday. Yet recent crises have set it back.

Read more: Karin Keller-Sutter makes the case for gender equality at the UN
Talks between pharma and government stall

More

Pharma supply chains

Talks between pharma and Swiss government stall

This content was published on Discussions between pharma and the Federal Council on Monday evening failed to produce a clear solution to the US customs policy. Economy Minister Guy Parmelin spoke of "constructive" discussions, but did not offer any concrete suggestions.

Read more: Talks between pharma and Swiss government stall
Jet fighters, 63% of the Swiss want to vote again

More

Swiss democracy

Poll: 63% of Swiss want to vote again on fighter jet procurement

This content was published on Two out of three Swiss people want to vote again on the purchase of a jet for the air force, according to a representative poll published today by the information portal Infosperber.

Read more: Poll: 63% of Swiss want to vote again on fighter jet procurement
Lucerne city council wants to introduce a flat-rate naturalisation fee

More

Demographics

Lucerne wants to introduce a flat-rate naturalisation fee

This content was published on The city council would like to introduce a flat fee of CHF500 per application. This would be significantly lower than the current fee, which is based on the amount of processing required.

Read more: Lucerne wants to introduce a flat-rate naturalisation fee

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR