The XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbeanhas concluded with a clear commitment to create policies that recognize and help fulfill the right to care.
In the Buenos Aires Commitmentadopted at the Conference, recognizes “care as a right of people to care, to be cared for and to exercise self-care based on the principles of equality, universality and social and gender co-responsibility”, according to the Economic Commission of the United Nations for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
It is therefore a responsibility that “must be shared by people from all sectors of society, families, communities, companies and the State,” added that body in a statement.
The Conference, which this year celebrated its 45th anniversary, opened on Monday in the Argentine capital and brought together delegates from 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and other regions, as well as representatives of 17 United Nations agencies and 14 intergovernmental organizations. They were joined by parliamentarians from 15 countries in the region and more than 750 members of civil society. In total, there were 1,168 participants.
“We welcome the great political commitment agreed in Buenos Aires, which will allow us to advance in concrete policies to make the rights and autonomy of women a reality throughout the region and in all its territories”, said Raúl García-Buchaca, ECLAC’s deputy executive secretary.
Latin America advances in the recognition of the care society and gender equality
Financing needed to reverse inequality
García-Buchaca stressed that “financing care policies is essential to reverse gender inequalities and guarantee the rights of all women.”
For her part, María-Noel Vaeza de UN Womenassured that it is during crises that “we have to dare to dream”, highlighting the unprecedented impulse that has been given at the Conference to a new development model: that of the care society.
“We trust that the States and the private sector will continue to join this great effort to correct historical inequalities, help take care of the planet and, finally, increase opportunities for all of society, and especially women in all their diversity”, Vaeza added.
Ayelén Mazzina, Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity of Argentina, pointed out that, “as an Argentine and a feminist”, she was proud that the Buenos Aires Commitment was added to the Regional Gender Agenda.
Finally, the Deputy Secretary General of the UN, Amina J. Mohammed, that “the unequal distribution of care work, the absence of care services and the lack of recognition of the social value of domestic work directly undermine gender equality”.
In this sense, he called on the countries of the region to “develop comprehensive care systems and redistribute time, power and resources” to achieve true gender equality, which requires adequate financing.
The delegates of the countries present in Argentina recognized the work carried out by the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean and appreciated the preparation of the position paper of the Conference, The care society: horizon for a sustainable recovery with gender equalityas well as the publication Breaking the statistical silence to achieve gender equality in 2030: application of the axis on information systems of the Montevideo Strategy for the Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda in the Sustainable Development Framework towards 2030both prepared by ECLAC.
A pregnant woman.
Do not cut programs to fight poverty
During the meeting the document was also presented Financing of care systems and policies in Latin America and the Caribbean: contributions for a sustainable recovery with gender equalityprepared by ECLAC and UN Women.
In the Buenos Aires Commitment, the countries agreed to “design, implement and evaluate macroeconomic policies, and especially fiscal policies (income, expenditure and investment), from a gender equality and human rights perspective, safeguarding the progress achieved and mobilizing the maximum resources available with a view to increasing sustainable public investment over time in care policies and infrastructures, in order to guarantee universal access to affordable and quality care services”.
In the same way, they committed to “that the measures of fiscal adjustment or budget cuts aimed at dealing with situations of economic slowdown are in accordance with the principles of human rights and non-discrimination, especially avoiding cuts in programs and support that may generate an increase in poverty levels and the overload of unpaid work and care that affect women”.
