Opening remarks by Elena Kountouri Tapiero, Acting Regional Representative

UN Office for Human Rights, Brussels

30 October, 14:00 - 16:15 CET, Online event

Good day to all.

Let me warmly welcome everyone joining us online.

I would like to thank my colleagues at UN Women and ILO for the cooperation in organizing this event to mark the anniversary of the International Day of Care and Support.

Many thanks also to the Government of Germany for co-convening and the Global Alliance of Care for supporting this event.

The International Day of Care and Support celebrates the rights of everyone involved in the sustainability of life. In particular, those providing and requiring care and support, and in promoting self-care for people and the sustainability of our planet.

We honour the work of millions of care and support workers, unpaid care and support givers and human rights defenders around the world.

Too long we have relied on the free labour of women to sustain families, communities and societies. Too long persons with disabilities and older persons have been denied their agency and control over the support they receive and the management of self-care. They have been portrayed as ‘dependents’, a ‘burden’, or passive objects of care.

International human rights law, brings about a change. It promotes the organization of care and support in a gender-, age- and disability responsive way.

Economic empowerment of women is directly tied to the time they invest in unpaid care and support work. Older women and girls, often portrayed as recipients of care and support, significantly contribute to sustaining these unfair care systems. They are affected negatively, in providing and in requiring care and support. Older women should live well, and girls should have time to play and grow.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes support as a human right that enables the participation of persons with disabilities in the community on an equal footing with others.

It is essential to emphasize that care and support is not about charity. It is about human rights – the human rights of both those who give, and those who receive care and support. It is an issue of growing importance since the COVID-19 pandemic. Its heavy toll on (informal) carers, who are mostly women, and on persons with disabilities and older persons (particularly those in institutional care), laid bare the urgent need for transforming care and support systems.

There is now recognition by the UN and by States that we need to shift to care and support systems that are gender-, disability-, and age-responsive and that fully respect the human rights of both paid and unpaid caregivers as well as the rights of receivers of care and support.

In 2023, Human Rights Council resolution 54/6 on the centrality of care and support from a human rights perspective, also recognized the equal distribution of care and support work as a fundamental basis to achieve gender equality.

In the Pact for the Future, States committed to significantly increase investments in the care and support economy (Action 8 (d).

I call on all of us to work on an intersectional approach to the EU Care Strategy. We need to secure that investment promotes the rights and autonomy of women, persons with disabilities, youth, older persons and children, according to their evolving capacities. We need to prevent “business as usual” through EU funding and increase the pace of system transformation towards human rights.

It takes a village to make real change! To this end, it is great to see such a diverse range of participants in our event today to mark this important International Day of Care and Support.

Thank you!