201903 HRC40 MMM – Right to Work

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.21.3″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.21.3″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.21.3″][et_pb_image src=”https://ngocsw-geneva.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mmmm.png” _builder_version=”3.21.3″][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.21.3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.21.3″]

Oral Statement
40th session of the Human Rights Council
Item 3
General Debate – Report of the UN Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights on the realization of
the right to work.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.21.3″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.21.3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.21.3″]

We at Make Mothers Matter thank the OHCHR for the report on the right to work, with a timely and relevant focus on young people. As stated in the report, the world currently hosts the largest generation of young people in history, yet in comparison to adults, they are three times more likely to be unemployed.

Within this group, young women are three times more likely than young men to be unemployed and this is because across many regions and cultures, they are expected to spend a large part of their day meeting the expectations of their domestic and reproductive roles. Women, and especially mothers, spend two to ten times more time on unpaid care work than men1, and the more they do it, the more their employment situation worsens compared to young men. Very worrying statistics…

We at MMM urge States to give unpaid carers social protection, training, and include unpaid care work in pension calculations. We support all policies promoting shared family responsibilities for work in the home, and policies tackling job discriminations faced by women of child-bearing age.

We believe it is a necessity for OECD countries, where birth rates are declining rapidly, to enable women to have a balanced work-family life. In South Korea, the demographic crisis has prompted Moon Jae-In, who calls himself « a feminist President » to introduce policies to extend paternal leave, and to compel employers to allow either parent to work fewer hours.

On this International Women’s Day, let us promote Womenomics! It is long overdue.

Thank you.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]