Women in Latin America and the Caribbean - Cepal

63
conditions of employment of workers belonging to these peoples.” The concept of effective protection as
applied to indigenous people and women is tied to the protection of rights within and outside the family,
an aspect that needs to be spelt out in laws to avoid a clash with usages and customs based on structures
of patriarchal authority and subordination.
In December 2006, the United Nations General Assembly approved the first human rights treaty
of the twenty-first century, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and its Optional
Protocol, establishing that persons with disabilities and their family members should receive the necessary
protection and assistance to enable families to contribute towards the full and equal enjoyment of the
rights of persons with disabilities (Resolution 61/106 of the United Nations General Assembly). Among
the convention’s most important provisions is the one providing that “States Parties reaffirm that every
human being has the inherent right to life and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective
enjoyment by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others” (article 10). The convention also
provides that States parties must ensure the “full development, advancement and empowerment of
women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of the human rights and
fundamental freedoms set out in the present Convention” (article 6). Persons with disabilities must have
the option of living an independent life, be included in the community, have the choice of where and with
whom to live and have access to in-home, residential and other community support services (article 19). 28
It is important to stress that the right of the disabled to live as independently as possible needs to
be given particular attention by the State, rather than simply being allowed to devolve upon the women of
the family. This is a clear example of the importance of care as an indispensable activity for human
development, and of the risks to women’s independence when States do not provide the means and
resources for disabled people to access the services they need as beneficiaries and for men, together with
women, to act as providers within and outside the home.
These international instruments, which are often reflected in national legislation, serve to give
different social groups policy leverage but do not yet form part of a follow-up and monitoring system
comparable to that of the institutions that oversee economic policies.
A rights-based approach is a development and policymaking strategy (OHCHR, 2004), which
makes it important to analyse the State’s level of compliance with the obligations contained in the
international instruments signed, and to evaluate the extent to which public policy design takes this
perspective into account. In view of this, there needs to be consideration of how the rights of people
performing unpaid work (domestic work in general or caregiving in particular) are formulated in
international instruments and the national laws of the region’s countries.
There can be no doubt that, as Pitch (2006) points out, legal recognition of rights cannot be the
only issue for women’s policy, or indeed for policy in general —or ensure the recognition of women as
political subjects. Nevertheless, it can make an effective contribution to real empowerment for women
(and for the elderly, children, the sick and other social groups) provided rights are treated as universal.
This means transcending the particular and the concept of the minority or “vulnerable group” and positing
a universality that takes account of differences (Pautassi, 2007).
28
As of May 2007, the countries of the region that had signed the convention were: Antigua and Barbuda,
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Suriname.