Training Manual on Gender Sensitivity and CEDAW

Appendix A: Case Studies
Case Study #5 – Equal rules for girls sports team
A Memo was issued by DECS instructing the school officials to ensure that all the student
sport competitors at the junior level are below the age of 13. The test suggested is examining the
presence of pubic hair in the student’s private parts. Pursuant to this memo, Mr. A, the Varsity
Supervisor for girls in School X lined up the Junior Volleyball Team and ordered them to strip
below the waist so that he can examine their genitalia for the presence of pubic hair. The girls who
were all 12 years of age refused. As a result, they were excluded from the Sportsfest and all other
sports activities of the school. The team consulted you for legal advice, claiming that they felt
discriminated against.
a) What arguments will you advance in questioning the DECS Memo
b) Using a gendered perspective, draft a revised and improved Memo.
Case Study #6 – Stereotypes in rape case
People v. Lagot
This is an appeal from the decision of the Regional Trial Court finding accused Kiko Lagot guilty of
raping his daughter. The ratio decidendi reads:
It is enough to point out that, in rape cases, it is not necessary that the
victim should have resisted unto death especially when the rapist is her father.
Physical resistance need not be established in rape when intimidation is exercised
upon the victim and the latter submits herself, against her will, to the rapist’s
embrace and allow the latter to trifle with her inferior strength.
Unless she is motivated by truth, no woman, much less a 13-year old girl,
would subject herself to the rigors of a public trial, describing her defloration
before total strangers. No young and decent Filipina would publicly admit that she
was ravished and her honor tainted unless the same was true. By testifying in court,
she made public a painful and humiliating secret, which others may have simply
kept to themselves for the rest of their lives. She thereby jeopardized her chances
of marriage or foreclosed the possibility of a blissful married life, as even a
compassionate man may be reluctant to marry her because her traumatic
experience may be a psychological and emotional impediment to a blissful union.
Moreover, such a revelation divided her family and brought it shame and
humiliation.
a) What gender stereotypes/misconceptions are perpetuated by this decision
b) Improve on the tenor of the decision by using gender-fair language.
c) What provisions of CEDAW can be invoked or used in this case
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