HRC 57: SRI Statement to the Panel discussion on the implementation of States’ obligations on the role of the family in supporting the human rights of its members
Panel discussion on the implementation of States’ obligations on the role of the family in supporting the human rights of its members
Wednesday, 25 September 2024, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Statement by Action Canada for Population and Development
Thank you, President.
Action Canada makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative.
We appreciate the panel’s focus on state obligations in relation to the rights of family members. This frame allows the Human Rights Council to move beyond narrow debates on patriarchal constructions of families to effectively engage the human rights framework for the benefit of family members.
In this regard, the principle of universality must be applied to challenge which families are considered to be worthy of state protection and therefore which family members are entitled to human rights, according to the state. For example, families forcibly separated and incarcerated during migration, families whose children are taken into state custody on the basis of poverty and racism, families who are unable to access healthcare because of cost, families who rely on the unpaid and unrecognized care work of women and girls, families who are denied the ability to decide if and when to have children. At this very moment, we are witnessing families being decimated in service of a racist, colonial state and its expansionist aspirations. Are these family members not entitled to human rights?
When we apply the human rights principle of universality in this context, the failure of states to fulfil their obligations to non-discrimination and the ways in which States evade their obligations to fulfil economic, social and cultural rights by placing the burden on family members, becomes crystal clear.
Our question to the panel is: Could you elaborate on the connection between states’ economic policies and the role and function of families?
Thank you.