Trans Athletes & Human Rights

Trans athlete Laurel Hubbard’s participation in women’s weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics has sparked a heated debate, with one side claiming non-inclusion is discrimination and the other saying Hubbard has an advantage which denies biological women the opportunity to compete. Hubbard has met the criteria for inclusion and will be competing – but how does this issue relate to human rights? And is the science-based inclusion criteria sufficient to provide a robust solution? To help answer some of these very difficult questions, human rights law expert from the University of Waikato – Professor Claire Breen caught up with the Daily’s Stef Posthuma.