Gender Stereotyping in Rape Cases: The CEDAW Committee's Decision in Vertido v The Philippines

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 stereotyping, under articles 2(f) and 5(a), to the right to a fair trial.

Simone Cusack & Alexandra S H Timmer, Gender Stereotyping in Rape Cases: The CEDAW Committee's Decision in Vertido v The Philippines (2011) 11:2 Oxford Human Rights Law Review 329.