This is the first time any international tribunal has recognized care as a standalone human right. The Court also recognized that this right is interdependent with other human rights, including economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights. In response to a request from Argentina, the Court’s legal guidance to States addresses long-standing demands from feminist and human rights movements, including ESCR-Net and 30 of its members, who contributed legal arguments and lived experience to the Court’s deliberations.
In total, 129 written submissions were presented by more than 265 actors, making this process the second most participatory in the history of the Court. In addition, in March 2024 we were present at the public hearings held in San José, Costa Rica, together with ESCR-Net, where nearly 70 delegations participated, contributing the perspective of organized civil society from Latin America. Our participation focused on the need to build a new social pact centered on care for the sustainability of life.” – Mayca Balaguer, Executive Director of FUNDEPS.
The Court emphasized that care is essential to sustaining life and ensuring dignity—yet it remains deeply undervalued and unequally distributed. As the ILO has reported, women perform 76.2% of all unpaid care work globally, spending more than three times as many hours as men on these essential, life-sustaining tasks. This burden not only limits women’s autonomy and opportunities but also reinforces structural inequalities on a global scale.
This context underscores the significance of the Court’s decision. By legally affirming care as a human right, the Court sends a clear message: care is not a private burden or personal duty, but a collective social responsibility. States must act to dismantle the systems that devalue care and perpetuate gendered injustice. In order to guarantee the right to care, States must also provide comprehensive health care, including sexual and reproductive health services, among other forms of public provision.
The Court further recognized that the unequal distribution of care work—primarily carried out by women and girls—constitutes a structural barrier to substantive equality. It acknowledged how intersecting forms of discrimination—based on gender, race, age, migration status, disability, and socioeconomic position—deepen inequities and restrict access to rights such as education, employment, and political participation. It called on States to adopt structural reforms to reverse these injustices.
In doing so, the Court outlined concrete obligations for States to:
- Recognize the social and economic value of unpaid and paid care work, reduce care burdens and barriers, and redistribute care responsibilities;
- Unpaid care work, disproportionately borne by women, must be addressed through comprehensive care systems, parental leave, flexible work policies, and access to social security.
- Guarantee labor rights and social protections for both paid and unpaid care workers;
- Ensure inclusive and equitable access to quality care services;
- Adopt legal, policy, and budgetary reforms to dismantle gender stereotypes and systemic inequality.
With this resolution, the IACHR establishes a broad legal framework to guide States in building solid regulations in line with the standards set out in the ruling itself. This advance represents a significant achievement in defining the scope and content of the right, becoming a key reference for the design of laws and policies to guarantee it.” – Carlos Andrés Pérez.
This ruling gives renewed strength to ESCR-Net’s Social Pact on Care, a collective proposal to transform how care is valued, shared, and protected. The Pact offers a bold, feminist vision based on the 6Rs: Recognition, Redistribution, Reduction, Rights, Representation, and Reframing the economy as a care economy.
We could not imagine an economy based solely on the market. From different worldviews, we shaped a Pact to rethink care through recognition, redistribution, reduction of care burdens, representation, and the reformulation of the economy, all within a framework of realizing human rights. The Court has agreed with us and recognized care as an autonomous right. Recognizing the Pact we built also means recognizing gender justice and the intersectional voices of women. The Court gives us yet another tool to demand, in our countries, a fair and equitable care system that places people and the care of the planet at its center.” – Claudia Lazzaro, Sindicato de Obreros Curtidores de Cuero de la República Argentina, SOCRA.
What’s next
Amid rising anti-rights agendas and the erosion of public goods, the Court’s decision is a powerful affirmation of care as a legal right and a necessary political priority. It offers feminist and human rights movements a vital tool to advance care-centered systems rooted in substantive equality, solidarity, and sustainability.
The Advisory Opinion breathes renewed energy into this critically important work for us as feminist movements advocating for the recognition of the right to care and care work. It confirms that we cannot wait for another global crises to give effect to what are basic human rights.” – Charlene May, Women’s Legal Center, South Africa.
As this ruling sets a new regional legal standard, ESCR-Net will continue advocacy and campaigning to ensure it translates into real change—in law, policy, public provision, and ultimately daily life—across Latin America, the Caribbean, and globally.
It is essential for States to address the needs of all communities so that everyone can fully benefit from care policies. Without care, there is no social justice; and without social justice, there are no human rights. That is why States must embrace the care agenda as a right and recognize it as a cornerstone of social justice and gender equality, moving beyond the historical view that has placed this responsibility almost exclusively on women.” – Claribed Palacio, President of the Union of Afro-descendant Domestic Workers (UTRASD), Colombia.
Resources
- Full Advisory Opinion 31/25 from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ES)
- Collective Submission to the Court by ESCR-Net and Members (2023)
- ESCR-Net’s Social Pact on Care
