Norway: Genetic sex test of runners is illegal and could be human rights violation

https://www.nrk.no/sport/nedslaende-beskjed-rett-for-vm-i-friidrett_-kjonnstest-kan-vaere-brudd-pa-menneskerettighetene-1.17554507

by MarlinMr

36 comments

  1. Next head line: Female Runner with large beard wins all Norwegian national races.

    Stunning and Beautiful ✨

  2. #Shock message before World Championship: Sex test could be human rights violation

    “We have 14 girls who have qualified, and they will participate,” confirms national team doctor Ove Talsnes.

    Before that, the women must go through a gender test. Earlier this week, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) revealed that Norwegian athletes have ended up in a difficult bind; the gender test is illegal in Norway. It is also illegal for Norwegian organizations and healthcare personnel to facilitate such a test.

    “A huge challenge,” says the national team doctor.

    Before the summer, Norwegian track and field athletes were informed that they must undergo gender testing. It was then that the federation discovered that the test is in violation of the Biotechnology Act. Talsnes risks breaking the law if he helps Norwegian athletes get genetically tested.

    #Disappointing news
    Lawyer Olaf Halvorsen Rønning, who has experience with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), has some disappointing news:

    ‘The right to genetic information is perhaps one of the most personal things we have. It is protected as one of the most fundamental human rights,’ Rønning tells NRK.”

    NRK has been in contact with several athletes who are going to the World Championships, but they do not wish to comment on the matter. National team doctor Ove Talsnes has been in contact with several of the women who are traveling to the World Championships and will be gender tested.

    ‘Initially, it is uncomfortable,’ Talsnes said on the Wednesday evening program Dagsnytt 18.

    He also said there that he has not heard of anyone who has objections to the test, and that it is something the athletes want in order to have a fair competition.

    That is not enough for lawyer Rønning, who has a clear message:

    ‘In a case like this, where the Storting (Norwegian parliament) has said it is not legal, a breach of human rights could occur.’

    ‘So, one is violating human rights?’

    ‘Yes, Norwegian authorities could risk violating human rights if they do not protect the athletes’ privacy when faced with illegal demands for testing from the sports federation.

    The lawyer justifies it this way:

    ‘Interventions and regulations regarding what is protected by this right must fulfill certain specific requirements. Both a basis in law and be proportional.’

    The international athletics federation (WA) is surprised when they receive the message from NRK.

    ‘We are very surprised and a bit concerned about the question of human rights. In October, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women believed that such tests should be conducted in sports,’ says WA’s head of press, Maggie Durand, to NRK.

    That does not change the matter, according to lawyer Rønning.

    ‘If such requirements are to be introduced, and how they should be formulated, can in principle only be done through law, and not solely through the rules of the sport.’

    #More sports are following suit.

    The World Athletics Championships begin on Saturday, September 13. The International Boxing Association (WB) has also introduced gender testing before its World Championships, which started on September 4.

    ‘You can certainly look at the law in isolation, but we have to elevate this beyond reading legal paragraphs. As the regulations are in Norway now, it is not permissible for Norwegian girls to practice their profession,’ says Ove Talsnes.

    ‘Sports cannot place themselves above the rules that the Storting (Norwegian parliament) has actually made. Until they have stepped in and provided new regulations, we believe that sports and the sports federation must respect the rights that athletes have and not facilitate tests like these,’ says lawyer Rønning.

  3. It’s interesting that in the 90s, Norway literally tried to ban this exact kinds of tests by law, but legal work found that it was _already_ covered by the extensive biotechnology law.

    Genetic information is considered some of the highest regarded private information in Norway, and any test like this, which is not for medical reasons, is simply considered a human rights violation.

    Parliament made it pretty clear that it’s simply a no go. And setting requirements outside the law like that, simply can’t work in a parliamentary democracy.

  5. There was [a discussion yesterday](https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1n8xief/frances_female_boxers_are_banned_from_world/) about the same issue for the French boxing team. It baffles me that some people are totally OK with disclosing their DNA to labs (even paying for it !) without any insurance against present or future misuses, and without even considering that their DNA is not only theirs, but also that of their relatives.

    It is quite incredible that the GDPR was able to pass in a society where so many people have zero clue about personal information.

  7. It does make sense on one level. But I do wonder how you stop even obvious cases of abuse if you are not allowed to test? This issue is and has always been a mostly hypothetical rather than a practical one but I am curious what would happen.

  8. And in moments like these, people start to wonder what kind of world they live in.

  9. There are genetic tests that can look at simple things without sequencing all DNA.

    For example, there’s a very common procedure that tests a pregnant woman’s blood to see if the foetus has trisomy (Downs syndrome). They can also test whether there are any Y chromosomes in the blood, which will determine whether the foetus is male (Y chromosome present) or female (Y chromosome absent).

    A similar thing could be carried out here

  10. Screw that. All participants in a sport have the right to know that their opponents are on the same playing field as them.

  11. So basically a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” type of a problem.

  12. But why? Just as you are tested about drugs or doping you could be tested about your gender.

  13. So maybe make it simple and just cancel the women’s sport categories and let everybody compete each other.

  15. So i guess we do away with separate categories in sports? Let’s do intersex everywhere, i’m sure everyone will be satisfied – as the old saying goes: let the best win.

    p.s. waiting for no weight categories too – weighting boxers is surely a violation too.

  16. I think we can all agree that the reason there are sports sections for men and sorts sections for women, is because men perform better than women.

    So i don’t think anybody who is intellectually honest will deny men have an unfair advantage of they compete with women.

    The real question is, how can we do less invasive tests.

  17. Theoretics aside, do we have statistics showing transwomen consistently dominating in their fields?

  18. That’s why no one respects the word “human rights” anymore, because you apply to everything and cheapen it. Men can’t compete in women’s sports and need to be tested, end of story.

  20. the amount of people on reddit denying basic human biology in favor of ideology is insane

  21. I can make the argument that a breathalyzer test is a human rights violation because it forces me to self incriminate.

    But checking for DUI drivers is in the greater good as it creates a safe traffic environment for everyone.

  22. This is totally besides the point and a very dumb take.

    On one hand, the test is voluntary. On the other hand, participating in international sports is not a human right (see Russia ban).

  23. Look at the amount of comments this thread has. There are more users here than there are professional trans sportsmen/women.

    It was never about fairness or trans or whatever. It is about controversy, it sells so that the companies organizing those sports events make more money. Now this will allow for even more controversy, recall how this African woman was suspected of being trans and everyone was talking about a disciple which has typically a very narrow interest group? And so the viewership (and from it money) increased.

    Truth or fairness interests nobody making decisions here, it’s about money through controversy

  24. Every time the question of trans women in sports comes up, I am completely unsurprised by the number of posters who talk about the “clear advantage” that trans women supposedly have.

    Trans women have been allowed to compete at Olympic sports since 2004, and in the intervening time, those sports have awarded (conservatively) north of ten thousand age-group world titles in specific events. The list of trans women among the winners of age-group world titles is one name long. They are, as a population, essentially nonexistent at the top level of amateur and professional sports.

    At a certain point, all the armchair theorising has to give way to the brute reality of empirical observation. If trans women have such an advantage, ***where the f**k are they?***

  25. We’re at the begining of an ugly age where this right-wing obsession with what’s in people’s pants is going to turn any event or competition into a culture war.

    Little girls –and grown ass women– are going to be socially traumatized by parents that will weaponize these sorts of pop-culture freakouts for their own sadistic and egotistical ends.

    And for what? So a handful of politicians and content mills can make money and gain power?

  26. The norwegian national team’s doctor says none of the women participating has expressed opposition regarding the tests. On the contrary, they wish to participate in these tests in order to ensure a fair competition.

  27. Because impersonating the opposite sex to win a race is totally ethical and not fraudulent or illegal in any way. 😂

  31. This is insane. We either say that we have male and female sports, and in case of reasonable doubt make sure which one a person is, or let’s just dump everyone in a single pot.

  32. It’s a single cheek swab that you do ONCE in your entire career, fucking get over it

  34. hard to believe a voluntary test could be a human rights violation

  35. This is what happens when men pretend to be women and their misogyny demands they try and take their spaces.

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