SAMPLE LETTER TO SEND TO UN HRC MEMBER STATES  

SAMPLE LETTER TO SEND TO UN HRC MEMBER STATES (See list of Human Rights Council members with contact information here.)  

 

Subject Line: Please oppose South African HRC resolution on women and sport!

 

Dear Ambassador, 

 

I respectfully ask you to either oppose or substantially amend the dangerous resolution currently being considered by the UN Human Rights Council on “Elimination of discrimination against women and girls in sport.” 

 

This resolution, which is claimed to be only about helping female athletes with intersex conditions, is worded so broadly that it will also allow males to compete unfairly against females as if they were female. 

 

Please either strongly oppose the resolution or insist on the following amendments: 

 

1. Replace the term “gender” with “sex” throughout the text or clearly define the term “gender” to mean male and female only.  

 

2. In each place where the resolution refers to “women and girls with differences in sexual development, androgen sensitivities and testosterone levels,”  replace the term “differences in sexual development” with “disorders of sexual development (DSDs).” This latter term (DSDs) is the correct medical term for intersex conditions. The former term is a deceptive phrase designed to also encompass men and boys who identify as women and therefore to bring in the transgender rights for males to be considered to be women.   

 

3. Replace the terms “women and girls” with “biological females.” This change would make it impossible for the transgender meaning to enter in. 

 

With these three critical changes it would make it clear that the resolution is intended to address intersex disorders of sexual development and not to biological males with transgender conditions. 

 

Respectfully, 

 

[INSERT YOUR NAME AND COUNTRY HERE]