ADVOCACY UPDATE - MARCH 05, 2009
Dear Child Care Colleagues:
What do child care advocates and the United Nations have in common?
Both have important roles to play in monitoring and publicly reporting on governments’ progress in improving access to quality, affordable child care services in their countries. Specifically regarding Canada, both have criticized the federal government for failing to ensure that, outside of Quebec, Canada’s children, women and families have adequate access to quality, affordable child care spaces.
Looking at child care primarily from the perspective of the child, in December 2008 we profiled the UNICEF Report Card. This study ranked Canada last out of 25 countries on various family policy measures including early childhood education and care, child poverty, parental leave and universal access to essential health services. Canada achieved only one out of ten benchmarks that were established based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Canada is a signatory.
Today, in recognition of International Women’s Day, we focus on Canada’s child care obligations and the Convention to Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The CCAAC brief What does CEDAW mean for child care in Canada? was written with the dual aims of demystifying and describing the CEDAW Committee’s recommendations to Canada, which oblige governments to take steps to provide sufficient, affordable child care as a women’s human rights issue.
The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada is part of a growing movement that recognizes child care as an important and effective economic stimulus. We know that, in good times and bad, children, women and families need, and have a right to access, quality, affordable child care. So does the United Nations. On February 6 2009 CEDAW issued a statement calling on governments to “comply with all their obligations under the CEDAW Convention in spite of the global financial crisis."
We wish you all a happy International Women’s Day, knowing that while we have come far together we still have far to go. In 1982, author and activist Michele Landsberg described the importance of our joint work to achieve women’s equality – and the difficulty of our struggle – in words that still resonate today1:
feminism can’t shirk its task of bringing bad news to reluctant public attention. The last twenty years have shown us that each new layer of encrusted prejudice uncovered by feminists is greeted first by groans of irritation by the unconvinced majority, who would rather not be disturbed; then by a flurry of grudging but stirred-up attention; then, gradually and painfully, by concessions and reforms; finally, casual acceptance of achieved change. There is not a step along the way that is not painful and unwelcome to some.
Sincerely,
Jody Dallaire, Chairperson
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada