Schona Jolly KC and Claire McCann appear in landmark case of Caster Semenya v Switzerland before the Grand Chamber of European Court of Human Rights

Caster Semenya and her legal team

Cloisters barristers Schona Jolly KC and Claire McCann appeared for Caster Semenya in her landmark sports and human rights case before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg yesterday.

See here for the Court’s press release and webcast of the hearing.

Mokgadi Caster Semenya is a South African female elite athlete. She is a two-time Olympic gold medallist in the women’s 800m. The Grand Chamber hearing marks the latest stage of her fifteen-year battle against World Athletics.

Regulations implemented by World Athletics in 2018 prohibited her from competing in any “relevant events” in the women’s category (including the 800m and 1500m, the very distances in which she specialises) unless she reduced her natural testosterone level by otherwise unnecessary medical interventions (requiring medication or even surgery).

Caster Semenya’s legal actions before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (in 2019) and the Swiss Federal Supreme Court were rejected (in 2020). Her legal team filed an application to the European Court of Human Rights on her behalf early in 2021 and, in July 2023, the Chamber concluded that Switzerland had failed in its positive obligations to provide a system of institutional and procedural safeguards to protect against violations of Ms Semenya’s fundamental rights and freedoms under the European Convention on Human Rights. See further here for Cloisters’ press release upon that judgment being delivered.

Switzerland’s request for a referral to the Grand Chamber was permitted and an oral Hearing took place on 15 May 2024 before 17 Judges of the Court in Strasbourg. The final judgment is expected towards the end of this year. There has been broad international press coverage, for example here.

Schona Jolly KC and Claire McCann were instructed in this significant case by Norton Rose Fulbright lawyers, Gregory Nott and Patrick Bracher in Johannesburg and Christian Dargham in Paris, working alongside Toronto-based lawyers, James Bunting and Carlos Sayao of Tyr LLP who complete the team. See here for the press release issued by Norton Rose Fulbright.