In most sporting competitions, athletes are split into sex-specific categories (male or female). These physiological criteria de facto exclude intersex people, who are born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions of female or male bodies, deny the gender dimension and they also exclude transgender people, whose gender identity does not align with what has culturally been associated with their sex assigned at birth.
Against this backdrop, the Council of Europe’s Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) held a Webinar on protecting and promoting the human rights of transgender and intersex athletes in sport on 24 April 2023 in hybrid format. Speakers included representatives from Council of Europe bodies such as EPAS/Sport Division and the SOGI Unit, as well as EPAS Consultative Committee member organisations, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Global Observatory on Gender Equality in Sport (GO), sports clubs, academics, athletes, and other experts.
The webinar was structured around two panels: the first panel took stock of both the progress and the obstacles encountered over the past years since the 2021 Diversity Conference on the same subject and the second panel focused on educational tools – each panelist sharing their experience working with tools developed to protect and promote the human rights of transgender and intersex athletes.
The webinar was followed by a technical meeting, where the foundations were laid for preparing an educational toolkit aimed to dispel misinformation and serve as a useful resource for sports management students and trainers and the wider sports community.
@CoE_Sports, 