Foreign Affairs, Inmujeres, UN Mexico and the Global Alliance for Care commemorate the First International Day of Care and Support
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Inmujeres, UN Mexico, and the Global Alliance for Care commemorated the first International Day of Care and Support. The meeting highlighted the importance of care agendas and Mexico's actions to promote the recognition of the right to care.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), the National Institute for Women (Inmujeres), the UN in Mexico, and the Global Alliance for Care held the commemorative event of the first International Day for Care and Support, which had the following objectives: to analyze the contributions of Mexican foreign policy (in particular, the Feminist Foreign Policy) and national policy to the issue of care and its link with human rights, and to identify new actions that Mexico can take domestically and internationally to promote a society of care.
During the opening segment, Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena emphasized that care is key to the sustainability of life and that the care society to which we aspire implies respecting the past, history, traditions, the wisdom of our ancestors and indigenous peoples and requires taking care of future generations, ensuring that they have the necessary resources and goods to do so. Within the framework of Mexico's Feminist Foreign Policy, she affirmed that there can be no equality without the recognition, redistribution, and revaluation of care.
The president of the National Women's Institute, Nadine Gasman Zylbermann, said that commemorating this day speaks of the struggle of many women to make visible something that was invisible and that positions care at the center of the debate as an issue of the highest importance for sustaining life and closing inequality gaps. "It has been a contribution of the feminists of the world to position this issue in this transcendence because it is what sustains life, it is what makes everything else work (...) this proposal of care societies is a civilizational issue that changes the paradigm of things to people and can guarantee us the survival and sustainability of life". We will insist on this issue because the consolidation of these care societies represents a common good, a benefit that implies well-being for all and that translates into economic growth, which contributes to preventing violence and strengthening the social fabric.
For her part, the UN Women representative in Mexico, Belén Sanz Luque, highlighted that "globally, women dedicate 2.8 more hours than men to unpaid household and care work. At this rate, by 2050 women will continue to dedicate 9.5% more time than men to this work globally, closing this gap very slightly. The recognition of the right to care facilitates the possibility for millions of women to access formal economies, social protection, independence and autonomy".
The interim technical secretary of the Global Alliance for Care, Emilienne De León endorsed the importance of commemorating the International Day of Care and Support "to change the paradigm of society towards a vision that promotes sustainable development, that puts people, gender justice and women's autonomy at the center. For a society that addresses and combats systemic inequalities to move towards a future that prioritizes the well-being of all persons and our planet".
The event featured two keynote speeches.On the one hand, the renowned Mexican anthropologist and academic Marta Lamas Encabo, spoke on the topics of inequality, social ties, and the relationship with care. On the other hand, the Spanish specialist María Ángeles Durán, a pioneer in studies on the subject, focused her presentation on the uses of time and the care society.Finally, during the panel "Why is an international day of care important and how does it help us move towards a true care society? "moderated by the General Director of Human Rights and Democracy of the SRE, Roberto de León Huerta, good practices and challenges were shared by the President of the National Women's Institute Nadine Gasman Zylbermann; the General Director of the Simone de Beauvoir Leadership Institute, Friné Salguero; the collegiate general secretary of the National Union of Domestic Workers, Norma Palacios Trabamala; the director of the International Labor Organization's Country Office for Mexico and Cuba, Pedro Furtado de Oliveira; the Chilean ambassador to Mexico, Beatriz Sánchez; and the secretary general of the Inter-American Conference on Social Security, Álvaro Velarca Hernández.
At the event, it was recognized that foreign policy and public policy actions are complementary and that such efforts help to strengthen the care agenda, thus contributing to substantive equality. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Inmujeres, UN Women, and the Global Alliance for Care reaffirm their commitment to advance from a multi-stakeholder approach to the recognition, redistribution, and reduction of care and generate actions for the recognition of the right to care to self-care and to be cared for.
