A/HRC/27/73 key provisions related to stereotyping. The issue of stereotyping c ould be analysed under multiple articles of the Convention, including those addressing the elimination of all forms of discrimination (art. 2), the obligation to modify gender stereotypes (art. 5), and the elimination of stereotypes in education (art. 10). She added that the Convention should be used as a comprehensive, legally binding instrument for the modification of sex and gender-based stereotypes that constituted discrimination against women. 7. Ms. Cusack shared her research on how judicial stereotyping undermined justice for women, explaining that judicial stereotyping posed a substantial barrier to justice for women, particularly for victims of gender-based violence. She referred to the several ways in which judicial stereotyping resulted in miscarriages of justice. First, it undermined justice by compromising impartiality. I t also influenced judges’ understanding of the nature of criminal offences and their perception of whether violence had or had not occurred. Stereotyping could further affect judges’ view about the credibility of witnesses, as well as prevent judges from h olding perpetrators accountable or even blame the victims for the attack experienced. Th at harm was continuing to play out and judicial stereotyping was an issue that had to be addressed if women were to achieve substantive equality. 8. Ms. Undurraga said that girls were stereotyped and treated as if they were not (or should not be) interested in sex, so health systems d id not respond to the needs of girls according to their evolving capacities for autonomous behavio ur. Girls became exposed to coercion, pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Other stereotypes included the notion that women were not able to take important decisions and needed the protection of their husbands or doctors, resulting in women being denied decision-making autonomy regarding contraception or abortion. The idea that women should always be available for their husbands denied them the right to decide when to engage in intercourse and made it difficult for women to win marital rape cases in courts. Stereotypes that women should sacrifice themselves for their children have provided the excuse to delay medical treatment to women when such treatment could affect the foetus. Stereotypes that grounded women’s value on their fertility or capacity to perform domestic work, sustained practices such as forced marriage, sexual exploitation and domestic slavery. 9. Ms. Nigussie, addressing the situation of women with disabilities, reiterated that in many cases women were expected to be beautiful, fertile and dedicated to household work, and women with disabilities were regarded as lacking those attributes. She provided several examples of compounded stereotypes and their impact on women with disabilities, for instance, in certain places, if a sister of a woman with disability married, the woman with disability was also “given” to the husband. In another example, she said that in some communities, HIV-infected men targeted disabled women in the belief that their purity would cure them of HIV. She also pointed to the impact of stereotypes in access to justice, explaining that justice systems did not consider women with disabilities, including victims of violence, as reliable witnesses, hindering the ability of those women to claim justice. She called for enhanced efforts to effectively respond to the needs of women with disabilities. 10. Mr. Minerson, as the moderator, drew attention to the role of stereotypes in perpetuating certain conceptions of masculinity, and the impact th at had had on eliminating violence against women. He explained that his organiza tion was interested in the narrative surrounding masculinity and the way men dealt with violence, and also in breaking stereotypes of men as violent, aggressive, in control of money, not nurturing and loving. He stressed that it was important to change the 4

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