Laura Maria Rojas (NYU Gallatin) | Oxfam-Mexico| Mexico City, Mexico
I am writing from Tepotzotlán, Mexico, where I am with my team at a one-week offsite. Our days are packed with workshops, discussions, and activities to create a strategic plan tailored to the current Mexican context.
Over the past few weeks, I have witnessed two layers of the human rights field.
On one hand, I have seen how women’s organizations, government agencies, and academics are working together to demand the recognition of care as a right, both locally and regionally in Latin America. For instance, Argentina presented a Consultative Opinion on care as a human right before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), seeking international and formal recognition of care as a right. The court’s response will provide a regional framework to demand the states’ interventions. This process has gained support from numerous organizations in Latin America, fostering a community of shared experiences and knowledge.
While the right to care is legally recognized by regional mechanisms and national constitutions, there is another “battle” going on. Civil society groups are demanding the implementation of policies with a human rights approach to facilitate the exercise of the right to care. In other words, they are demanding care services, policies, and infrastructure to reduce women’s unpaid care burden and to redistribute care tasks among the state, private sector, and civil society.
In this context, I have continuously wondered: Why should care be recognized as a human right?
I have learned that when care is recognized as a human right (the right to care, to be cared for, and to take care of oneself), it means it is universal and implies an obligation for states—as well as the private sector and communities. In the absence of recognition as a human right, care remains relegated to the private sphere, often burdening women, particularly those facing social, racial, and economic disadvantages or exclusion.
These learnings have come from the tasks and events I have participated in during my internship, particularly through getting to know the networks of feminist organizations in Mexico and Latin America that are advancing the care agenda in the region.
Organizations across the region working and learning together have been certainly inspiring!
Thanks for reading/ ¡Gracias por leer!
Laura Maria Rojas