WUNRN
Website of the UN Special Rapporteur
on Extreme Poverty & Human Rights: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Poverty/Pages/SRExtremePovertyIndex.aspx
UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON EXTREME
POVERTY
REPORT TO THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
2013
WOMEN AS CAREGIVERS, ESPECIALLY
WOMEN IN POVERTY
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Language of Choice.
"3.
For the purposes of this report, unpaid care work includes domestic work (meal
preparation, cleaning, washing clothes, water and fuel collection) and direct
care of persons (including children, older persons and persons with
disabilities, as well as able-bodied adults) carried out in homes and
communities."
Summary
In the
present report unpaid care work is positioned as a major human rights issue.
Focusing on women caregivers, particularly those living in poverty, the Special
Rapporteur argues that heavy and unequal care responsibilities are a major
barrier to gender equality and to women’s equal enjoyment of human rights, and,
in many cases, condemn women to poverty. Therefore, the failure of States to
adequately provide, fund, support and regulate care contradicts their human
rights obligations, by creating and exacerbating inequalities and threatening
women’s rights enjoyment.
The
report analyses the relationship between unpaid care and poverty, inequality
and women’s human rights; clarifies the human rights obligations of States with
regard to unpaid care; and finally provides recommendations to States on how to
recognize, value, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work. Ultimately, it
argues that State policies should position care as a social and collective
responsibility, in particular through improving women’s access to public
services, care services and infrastructure.
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E. Promoting Empowerment of Unpaid
Caregivers
106. In order to uphold their right to participation,
tackle gender stereotypes and create an enabling environment for the more equal
sharing of unpaid care work, States must take concerted action to meaningfully
empower unpaid caregivers.
107. Care users, caregivers and other stakeholders should
be proactively supported to participate in the design, implementation and
monitoring of care services and other relevant policies. States and other
relevant branches of Government must build the capacity of unpaid caregivers to
participate in decision-making processes, including by providing them with
accessible, up-todate information about their rights, and services and benefits
available to them.
Participatory mechanisms must be designed to
be accessible to women living in poverty with unpaid care responsibilities, for
example by providing on-site childcare at meetings.
108. Support, including financial support, should be given
to the work of women’s organizations and men’s groups challenging the gender
norms that allocate responsibility for care work to women and girls.
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