21.09.13
UN Geneva, Human Rights Council - As the Human Rights Council seeks to strengthening its work on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, MMM oral statement highlights the centrality of Care to the realisation of these rights - in particular the unpaid care work of mothers. We also call for for the recognition, support and fairer redistribution of this essential work.
The following is the full text of the statement we delivered during the discussion on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ vision to reinforce its work on economic, social and cultural rights, a discussion which has taken place on 15th September 2023 as part of the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Make Mothers Matter welcomes OHCHR’s vision to reinforce its work on economic, social and cultural rights. We agree that urgent action is needed to deliver these rights in line with the 2030 Agenda.
We regret however that the importance of care and the strengthening of care and support systems as a means to respect and advance the enjoyment of human rights for all, is absent from this vision.
To quote Sec General Guterres, ‘The pandemic has shown us who is doing the work that really matters: nurses, teachers, care workers. As we recover, we need to remember this. It is time to end the inequities of unpaid care work and create new economic models that work for everyone.’
Strengthening care and support systems should be at the heart of such new models, which must be based on Human Rights and serve the wellbeing of both people and the planet.
This means recognizing the essential value of the unpaid and underpaid work of caring, whose inequitable distribution has been a driver of exclusion and discrimination for women and girls, in particular for mothers.
It also means supporting and redistributing this crucial work more equitably, not only between men and women, but also across society.
Care connects to many if not all human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights. It concerns all of us. It is time to put care at the centre, and to frame care as a right: right to care and right to be cared for.
05.02.23
UN New York, CSocD61 - The virtual event we are organizing as part of the 2023 UN Commission on Social Development will draw attention to the specificity of the situation
14.04.23
Make Mothers Matter, together with the city of Ypres, and its grass roots partners Mothers for Peace, Mama Kivu and the Vrouwenraad, is organizing an international peace Conference Women at
14.12.22
Despite the growing number of families headed by a single parent, single parents remain one of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to poverty, housing and energy deficits, and
23.11.23
On November 7th, we co-hosted an event at the EU Parliament on peripartum depression with MEP Maria Noichl.
13.11.23
Make Mothers Matter launched a new video series on Maternal Mental Health, addressing mothers, their families and society in general. Our aim is to highlight the latest research surrounding maternal health in o
24.10.23
A look back at our LP4Y event in New York
12.10.23
As part of the LP4Y Youth Inclusion International Forum, which will take place on 18-19 October 2023 in New York/Brooklyn, Make Mothers Matter is organizing a session entitled Make Young Mothers Count, whose ma
11.10.23
UN Geneva, Human Rights Council - Entitled ‘Centrality of care and support from a human rights perspective’, this landmark resolution was presented by the governments of Argentina, Iceland, Mexico and Spain
09.10.23
In June this year, the European Union (EU) Commission announced a new high-priority initiative to address the mental health of all Europeans.