Gender Stereotypes in Laws and Court Decisions in Southeast Asia: A Reference for Justice Actors

With the purpose to eliminate gender stereotypes in justice delivery as a critical component of promoting women’s access to justice, this paper seeks to develop critical understanding among judges and other justice actors on gender stereotypes, and how it could be avoid, as well as to provide judicial training programmes for justice actors in investigation and adjudication. Because gender stereotypes harm women, State have mandatory obligations to eliminate them under international Human Rights treaties, especially under the Convention on Elimination of all form of discrimination against Women. The paper particularly focus on gender stereotypes in laws, legal processes and court decisions in Southeast Asia, with examples from Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam.