28 October 2013

UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty: unpaid care should be shared by women, men and states

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda, told the UN General Assembly’s main social, humanitarian and cultural body (Third Committee) in New York that cooking, cleaning and caring for children and the elderly should be a social and collective responsibility, rather than fall entirely on women’s shoulders. She warned that unpaid care that is not shared ingrains poverty and social exclusion for women. Furthermore, her report outlines states’ obligations to tackle the unequal distribution of care under existing human rights agreements.

‘In order to truly empower women, we must ensure that unpaid care is better valued, supported and shared – by men and the State’, according to Sepúlveda.

Source: OHCHR | Unpaid care work blocks women’s rights if not shared by men and States – UN expert