Comments for the CEDAW Committee on draft general recommendations on gender stereotypes
Country: All
Partners: The Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Violence Free Minnesota
Issues: Death Penalty, Gender-Based Violence
Mechanism: UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
Report Type: Other
CEDAW’s general recommendation on gender stereotypes is being considered during a critical global inflection point and a climate of rising authoritarianism. In the United States, this has emboldened a democratic backsliding and regressive approaches against women’s rights, women’s dignity, and women’s lives. Critically, while there is increasing global awareness that prison, criminalization, and the death penalty are also feminist issues, a lens of intersectional gender justice in this field is largely still on the margins.
Our comments focus on gender stereotypes in the criminal legal system, drawing on the research and experience of scholars, advocates, and women with direct experience of incarceration. Although the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide is based in the United States, it has 3 also conducted research, provided legal representation, and engaged in advocacy on behalf of women incarcerated around the world, including in Malawi, Tanzania, Indonesia, Cameroun, Pakistan, and Iran. Our extensive work with incarcerated women, and particularly those facing the death penalty, has taught us that gender stereotypes in the criminal legal system are highly normalized and pervasive. At the same time, gender bias in the criminal legal system is understudied and, as a result, poorly documented. This may explain why the Committee’s draft General Recommendation contains little specific information about the nature of stereotypes that impede women’s access to justice and the urgency of reforms to prohibit their invocation. Our comments aim to fill this gap. We have provided citations for all critical facts.
