A/HRC/62/55 resolve issues relating to the use of a single biological marker for eligibility to compete in the women’s category or questions about the robustness of evidence supporting claims that a competitive advantage results from higher natural testosterone. Moreover, the 2018 rules appear to have a racially disproportionate impact, as the majority of elite athletes that have been affected by these rules are from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Despite these issues, in 2019, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the legality of the 2018 regulations as applied to Caster Semenya, a Black South African athlete.25 19. As has been highlighted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, there is a long history of sports governance organizations developing and enforcing policies that normalize the surveillance and policing of women’s bodies and violations of their human rights. Women from marginalized racial and ethnic groups, including those with experiences of intersectional discrimination, are all too often disproportionately harmed by these practices due to their positionality within sports governance systems and because they do not conform to Western-centric stereotypes of femininity.26 20. The Special Rapporteur is also deeply concerned by current trends in sports eligibility regulations that, increasingly, reflect reliance on mandatory genetic sex-testing and rigid biological criteria. Such approaches revive practices that were previously abandoned following sustained scientific, legal and ethical criticism. They risk reintroducing discrimination, including racial, ethnic and intersectional discrimination, and other human rights harm, and risk violating the principle of non-retrogression. There are also questions about whether women from marginalized racial and ethnic groups, including those with experiences of intersectional discrimination, have been consulted and listened to in the development of eligibility criteria. The trends include the development and publication by the International Olympic Committee, in March 2026, of the new Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport. The Special Rapporteur wishes to highlight the joint statement on fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination in sport issued by several special procedure mandate holders in February 2026.27 She endorses the call made in the joint statement for “States, the International Olympic Committee and international sporting federations to reaffirm their commitment to dignity and rights-based sports governance, to refrain from endorsing or implementing blanket bans or mandatory genetic sex testing, and to ensure that any eligibility regulations are developed through transparent, participatory processes and remain subject to ongoing review in light of evolving evidence and human rights standards”. D. Lack of adequate racial representation among athletes, and role stereotyping 21. The adequate representation of marginalized racial and ethnic groups across different sports and at all levels of such sports is very important. At the grass-roots level, sports mirroring racial and ethnic diversity within societies can build social cohesion and challenge societal stereotypes. At the more elite levels, visible examples of athletic success can help to further address harmful racial stereotypes and inspire children and young people from marginalized racial and ethnic groups. Elite athletic opportunities and associated commercial opportunities, such as sponsorship, can help individuals disrupt their personal experiences of systemic and structural racism. The inclusion of racially and ethnically diverse athletes in national sports teams can also help to disprove ethno-nationalistic notions, prevalent in some societies, that associate whiteness with national identity and perpetuate harmful racial hierarchies. 22. Cricket, in particular, has historically reflected and reproduced racial, religious, caste and class hierarchies embedded within everyday social life. In the twentieth century, cricket functioned as a globalizing institution through which British imperial authority and ideals of 25 26 27 GE.26-07112 Ibid.; see also A/HRC/44/26. See A/HRC/44/26. Available at https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/discrimination/260225-jointstatement-on-fairness-inclusion-and-non-discrimination-in-sport.pdf. 7