ASG Brands Kehris' statement at ECOSOC event on Promoting Care and Support Systems

Ambassador Narváez, 

Excellencies, delegates, colleagues and friends,

I am delighted to join this event to launch the UN system policy paper on transforming care systems.

The policy paper places human rights, gender equality and the principle of leaving no one behind at the centre of the transformation of care and support systems. This approach will be critical to the success of our efforts.

This corresponds to the call made by States, in several resolutions, to establish “gender-responsive, disability-inclusive and age-sensitive care and support systems with full respect for human rights”.

The paper also recognizes States’ responsibility to ensure universal access to care and support services, infrastructure, goods, and devices for all, as a public good.

The policy paper is the result of joint efforts of UN entities. This UN-wide approach is exemplary. It brings the rights of those giving and receiving care and support together, which is integral to the transformation of systems that we collectively seek.

Our current approach to care and support is based on patriarchal and paternalistic models of care. Existing systems exploit the labour of women and girls as caregivers and subordinate the recipients of care as passive “dependents”, failing them, and failing societies as a whole.

Human Rights Council resolution 54/6 on care and support mandated my Office to prepare a comprehensive thematic study on the human rights dimension of care and support.

To fulfil this mandate, OHCHR organized dialogues with multiple stakeholders on this issue, and the message received is clear: the human rights of everyone involved in care and support must be respected. The human rights of those providing and receiving care and support are interdependent, and we must seek to enable dignity in self-care.

Older women continue to fulfil their role as caregivers, for example with grandchildren and ageing spouses, but that when they need care and support for themselves, they are more likely to be segregated in care institutions or isolated at home, where their autonomy is denied and, in some cases, they may be exposed to violence.

Critical support, such as assistive devices, human assistance, and inclusive facilities, have enabled women with disabilities, for example, to be caregivers and breadwinners for their families. However, when persons with disabilities do not have such rights-based support, they and their families often must give up their education, work, social life, and will find their future opportunities limited.

The lived experience of rights-holders, and the solutions they have found, offer concrete guidance on how transformation should be made.

We must ensure that the voices of women, persons with disabilities, children, youth, and older persons, are represented in decision-making around care and support, as workers, unpaid caregivers, and recipients of care and support.  

Excellencies and colleagues,

This policy paper is the product of critical joint work across UN entities. It is a first step towards building a common basis for continued collaboration across the UN system, and for further elaboration of the UN’s approach to care and support.

We stand ready to support States and other stakeholders to build care and support systems as a key lever to sustainable development.

Thank you.