Cusack, Simone

This article analyzes the way the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (the Committee) has interpreted CEDAW in response to cases of individual women under CEDAW's Optional Protocol. The author examines the analysis and results in these cases to show that the Committee has responded differently to claims based on reproductive rights and violence against women than it has to claims based on civil, political, or economic matters. The Committee has consistently condemned discrimination in cases based on the former, but has been more

This article examines both the strengths and the weaknesses of the CEDAW committee's decision in Vertido v The Philippines. Vertido is the Committee's leading decision on gender stereotyping. The case concerns the impediment that gender stereotypes can present to securing convictions for rape and sexual assault. The salient points of the case include the Committee's decision to frame the issue as the Philippines' legal liability for stereotyping in a rape trial; and the Committee's application of the obligations to eliminate wrongful gender