WIDE+ Recommendations to UN Human Rights Council on the protection of the family and the contribution of families in realizing the right to an adequate standard of living

WIDE+ Recommendations to UN Human Rights Council on the protection of the family and the contribution of families in realizing the right to and adequate standard of livin

WIDE_UNHRC_families_Oct_2015

WIDE+ contributed to the UNHRC consultation on protection of the family. WIDE+ recommends that:

• the concept of family is understood in terms of individuals assuming a shared responsible for social reproduction.
• Access to and the provision of public services like health, education and social security should not be regulated on the basis of markets, but easily accessible for all citizens on an individual basis as a matter of social rights.
• As specified in Paragraph 16 of the CEDAW Convention, States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations and shall ensure equality of men and women in the family.
• Unpaid and paid care work within the family, mostly done by women, has to be fully recognised as work and the contribution of unpaid work for social well-being has to be acknowledged.
• All family members have to be protected against violence from inside and outside the family.
• Current developments like migration, war and refuge contribute to many changes in the way family life is organised. Recognizing the lived diversity of family realities, states are obliged to respect, protect and enforce the human rights of all family members, their personal integrity and their dignity at the individual level, in particular sexual and reproductive rights..

This summer, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on ‘Protection of the family’, which called for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report and present it to the Council during its session in March 2016. This initiative at the Council (and beyond) has been linked to efforts of neo-conservative groups to promote a traditional and conservative notion of ‘the family’. That is why WIDE+ and many other CSOs have spoken out and provided recommendations towards the protection of families.