GENEVA - UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, today welcomed the U.S. Government’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sport,” issued on 5 February calling it a decisive step to ensure fairness, safety, and dignity for female athletes. “This decision reaffirms the importance of maintaining sex-based categories in sports, thereby safeguarding equal opportunities for women and girls,” Alsalem said. The expert noted that the executive order follows a recent decision by a US federal court declaring the previous administration’s regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 as unlawful and vacating them nationwide. “Most notably, it mandates the preservation of all-female athletic opportunities and locker rooms, ensuring privacy and dignity for women and girls,” Alsalem said. She noted that educational institutions will be held accountable for denying female students’ equal opportunities by forcing them to compete against or share spaces with biological males. Per the executive order, the US Government will rescind funds from educational programmes that undermine fair athletic opportunities for women and girls, addressing issues of endangerment, humiliation, and silencing. “This executive order sends a clear message that the rights of women and girls to female-only spaces, including in sports, matter,” Alsalem said. The Special Rapporteur called on the US Government to ensure that, while conducting its announced review of relevant policies, all persons can play sports in safety, dignity and equality. “To ensure that no one is left behind, I urge the US Government to ensure that open sports categories are created, or that the male category in sport is converted into an open category, for those not wishing to play in the category of their biological sex,” she said. The Special Rapporteur welcomed the US decision to work with major athletic organisations to promote policies that ensure fairness and safety in women’s sports and its commitment to advocating for international rules at the United Nations to protect a sex-based female sports category. In October 2024, Alsalem presented a report to the UN General Assembly on “Violence against women and girls in sports,” highlighting challenges that women and girls experience in participating equally and effectively in sport. The report called on states, international organisations, and sporting bodies to ensure that women and girls were able to play sport in conditions of safety, dignity and fairness including through the protection of the female category in sports. “I welcome the emphasis on promoting international rules and norms to protect women and girl athletes at all levels, including at the United Nations and look forward to cooperating with all states on this critical human rights issue,” Alsalem said. Reem Alsalem is the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR. Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/ For more information and media requests please contact hrc-sr-vaw@un.org For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts, please contact Dharisha Indraguptha (dharisha.indraguptha@un.org) or Maya Derouaz (maya.derouaz@un.org) Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on X @UN_SPExperts