Human rights economy, key to advancing women’s equality

“Global inequality and poverty are growing. Around 4.8 billion people are poorer than they were pre-COVID19 pandemic. In every society, they are more likely to be women and girls, particularly those who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination,” said Deputy High Commissioner Nada Al-Nashif during a panel on human rights economy and women’s human rights.

This panel was part of an annual full-day discussion on the human rights of women during the 56th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“Currently, more than 10 per cent of women globally are trapped in a cycle of extreme poverty, and at the current rate of progress, as many as 342 million women (8 per cent) will still be living in extreme poverty by 2030,” Al-Nashif said.

According to UN Human Rights, around 3.9 million women worldwide face legal barriers that affect their economic participation; women earn just 77 cents for every dollar paid to men; and 92 countries lack provisions mandating equal pay for work of equal value.

“Current economic legal and policy frameworks hinder the achievement of gender equality,” Al Nashif said. “They do not recognize the specific experiences and rights of women and girls, while privileging patriarchy and corporate power embedded in laws, policies, and institutions.”

In December 2023, Türk issued his vision statement, “Human Rights: A Path for Solutions”, in which he states that one way of anchoring economy in human rights is to prioritize the rights of women and girls, given the impact of their disproportionate role in unpaid care work and the informal sector.

“Women and girls are still perceived as the primary caregivers. This leads to women, including girls, young women, older women, and women with disabilities, shouldering a disproportionate share of unpaid care and support work,” Al-Nashif said.

“The distribution of unpaid care work is highly feminized,” said Emanuela Pozzan, Senior Specialist on Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination at the International Labour Organization (ILO), who indicated that 600 million women remain outside the labour force because of family responsibilities.

“Women perform 76.2 per cent of the total amount of unpaid care work: 16 billion hours per day – 3.2 times more time than men,” Pozzan said.

Time to shift the economic paradigm

Al-Nashif said it is more than time to re-evaluate the concepts of unlimited economic growth based on deeply embedded gender and other inequalities within and across countries.

“Our economies are failing us. Mind-boggling inequalities, unbelievable wealth enjoyed by a privileged elite, alongside grinding poverty experienced by millions. This is a human rights crisis,” Türk said on his vision statement.

“We need to shift our economic paradigm and our approach to macroeconomic policies towards realizing a human rights economy,” said Al-Nashif. “A human rights economy puts people and the planet in the centre of economic, social, and environmental policies.”

A human rights economy intentionally aims at dismantling structural barriers and other impediments with a view to eliminating discrimination and advancing substantive equalities, sustainable growth, and shared prosperity.

If economic systems are to work for gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights, Al-Nashif said, it is imperative to implement human rights economies in and across countries.

“Through the Human Rights Economy concept, we can perform the reset so urgently needed. Looking beyond profit, the short term and the interests of the few, the Human Rights Economy can deliver for people and planet because it is grounded in everybody’s human rights”, said Türk on his vision statement.