59th session of the UN Human Rights Council
Item 3: Interactive dialogue with the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls
Akahata Equipo de Trabajo en Sexualidades y Géneros
Thank you, President.
Akahata delivers this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative.
We welcome this report on care and support systems, especially its emphasis on their gendered dimensions. It thoroughly analyzes how gender stereotypes and inequalities are at the root of the burden that care and support work places on women and girls, as well as the impacts on their health, autonomy, and overall enjoyment of all human rights. It is particularly timely in shedding light on the situation of poor and migrant women care workers from the Global South, who are facing growing racism and xenophobia.
We appreciate that the report recognizes the contribution that care and support work makes to the global economy. To talk seriously about care is to talk about money. We support its assertion that care and support systems must be grounded in an intersectional, feminist, and human rights-based approach, and that the work of those who provide care must be decent, formalized, and well-paid. We emphasize the obligations of States in this matter, and the need to reduce and redistribute unpaid care work. We highlight the importance of incorporating environmental care as a key component, as well as making explicit the gendered impact of environmental degradation.
It is urgent to shift away from profit-centered societies and economies — including the military-industrial complex — toward ones centered on care, that are socially and environmentally sustainable.
Thank you.