A/HRC/44/26 in society more broadly. 6 For instance, broader sociocultural norms and more direct discriminatory actions, such as prohibitions on certain attire worn by women, have hindered women and girls from participating in sport and public life. 7 Women and girls who do participate in sport, particularly those who do not conform to community-based gender norms related to style of hair or dress, sexual orientation or participation in particular sports, may be subjected to harassment and exclusion by their families or communities. 8 8. Retention of women and girls in sport is also a prevalent issue. Recent studies in North America have revealed increased dropout rates and persistent barriers to the continued participation of women and girls in sport and physical activity. 9 These barriers include lack of access to opportunities, safety and transportation issues, social stigma, expense and lack of positive role models, as well as myths around menstruation and sexuality. 10 Migrant and refugee girls and women athletes face additional barriers, including racism and xenophobia. 11 9. Global awareness of and attention to sexual harassment and abuse in sports have recently intensified.12 Yet, as survivors’ testimony makes clear, informed, comprehensive, effective and rights-based responses to abuse, both preventative and remedial, are not yet in place at any level.13 The Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material, has specifically called for attention to be paid to the sexual exploitation of children in sports, characterized as rife, pervasive and widespread, and unchecked. 14 Research on the role that race, socioeconomic status and geopolitical location play in risk and access to remedy and prevention is also needed. 10. The intersection between discrimination based on race and on gender lead to even greater obstacles for specific groups of women and girls, including racial and ethnic minorities. Available data on women’s and girls’ participation in sport mostly focus on developed countries or elite athletes. The existing data do not show much about the intersection between gender and race discrimination in sport, global and local resource inequities and exclusionary community practices. 15 However, some scholarship is beginning to address these issues.16 11. Some studies indicate that contemporary gender- and race-based discrimination in sport can be traced back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the structure of modern international sport emerged through the founding of sporting associations around the globe and then their organization into an international system. This period witnessed the organization of sport to further a racialized masculine ideal in contrast to a racialized feminine ideal.17 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 See, for example, submission of Sexual Rights Initiative. See also CEDAW/C/FSM/CO/1-3, para. 38. See, for example, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), “Human rights of women wearing the veil in Western Europe”, research paper. Submission of Italy. See also submission of 6Rang and Human Rights Watch, “‘No choice but to deny who I am’: violence and discrimination against LGBT people in Ghana” (8 January 2018). Submission of Canada. See also www.womenssportsfoundation.org/do-you-know-the-factorsinfluencing-girls-participation-in-sports. Submission of Sexual Rights Initiative. Submission of Cyprus. Margo Mountjoy and others, “International Olympic Committee consensus statement: harassment and abuse (non-accidental violence) in sport”, British Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 50, No. 17 (April 2016). Centre for Sport and Human Rights, “The 2018 Sporting Chance Forum”, meeting report (June 2019). See, for example, OHCHR, “When sport becomes a dangerous playing field for children”. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “Women 2000 and beyond: women, gender equality and sport”, December 2007. Jimoh Shehu, ed., Gender, Sport and Development in Africa: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Patterns of Representations and Marginalization (Dakar, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 2010). See also Cora Burnett, “Engaging sport-for-development for social impact in the South African context”, Sport in Society, vol. 12, No. 9 (November 2009). Niko Besnier, Susan Brownell and Thomas F. Carter, The Anthropology of Sport: Bodies, Borders, Biopolitics (Oakland, California, University of California Press, 2017), chap. 2. 3