Joint Statement on the Recognition of the Right to Care and the Freedom of Association of Women Workers

May 1, 2025

Washington DC and Geneva – On this International Workers' Day, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association; the Rapporteur on the Rights of Women of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); and the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (REDESCA) of the IACHR, issue a joint call to States to recognize and guarantee the human rights to care and support, and to the freedom of association and peaceful assembly of women workers as an essential part of their human rights.

According to a 2020 report by the UN Special Rapporteur, it is crucial to strengthen the exercise of assembly and association rights by women, including unionization and other forms of collective participation, in the face of structural barriers such as discrimination and the unequal and unjust distribution of care and support responsibilities. Despite these obstacles, women have led the defense of human rights. In the workplace, they are at the forefront of key advances such as confronting violence, harassment, and discrimination at work. Likewise, they lead the exercise of the rights to strike, peaceful assembly, and association around the world.

This year, the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is being commemorated. This document highlights the urgency of transforming gender stereotypes that assign women a disproportionate burden in care and support tasks. In this regard, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in Advisory Opinion OC-27/21, emphasized that States must take measures to equitably redistribute these responsibilities between men and women, as a necessary condition for the effective exercise of union and association rights.

Care and support work are essential for the development of our society, including health, well-being, prosperity, and the preservation of the planet. However, such work, disproportionately undertaken by women, mostly unremunerated and unrecognized, represents the main barrier for women to access paid employment. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), 708 million women worldwide are excluded from the labor force due to unpaid care and support work, which they perform to care for children, persons with disabilities, and the elderly. Moreover, women with lower levels of education and those living in rural areas are more likely to be outside the labor force due to care and support responsibilities.

According to the UN Special Rapporteur's report, women who also belong to historically marginalized groups and are more likely to work in the informal economy and therefore are disproportionately affected by the lack of mechanisms to fully exercise their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Furthermore, the exclusion from their rights to associate and participate in collective bargaining exacerbates the social and economic disadvantages they face.

As noted in a recent Bulletin by the ILO and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), more than half of working women in the region (52%) are not affiliated with social security systems, which undermines access to labor rights such as leave and job protection. People who provide care and support, whether paid or unpaid, often face violations of their rights due to lack of recognition, gender inequality, stereotypes, lack of responsibility sharing, absence of public policies, intersectional discrimination, and precarious working conditions — particularly lacking social protection, safety, fair wages, and reasonable working hours.

Unpaid care and support providers include caregivers for family members or others, as well as workers with unpaid care and support responsibilities. Paid care providers may be found in both the formal and informal economy.

Women are also central to advancing the rights of those requiring care and support. In this regard, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in its Observations on the Request for an Advisory Opinion on the matter, emphasized that public policies on care and support must be based on models centered both on those who provide care and those who require it. The Commission underscores the need to protect persons requiring care and support, particularly older persons, in all forms of care provision.

According to a proposal by the United Nations, reflected in a recent report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, States' public policies can be guided by the "5Rs Framework" for care and support rights: (1) Recognize their value and the rights of those who provide or require; (2) Reduce their unpaid, indirect, and intensive burden, ensuring universal access; (3) Redistribute these responsibilities equitably across households, the State, businesses, and communities, and between genders; (4) Reward paid care and support workers fairly; and (5) Ensure the representation and participation of those providing and requiring care and support, and their organizations.

In line with this, it is essential to guarantee formalization, a minimum income, social protection, and reasonable working hours in the care and support sectors, consistent with the ILO's Resolution concerning Decent Work and the Care Economy, Recommendation No. 204 on transitioning from the informal to the formal economy, Convention No. 189 on domestic workers, and Convention No. 183 on maternity protection, as well as the Buenos Aires Commitment.

Accordingly, companies must respect the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and Inter-American Standards in this area, and act with due diligence to assess the impact of their activities on the rights to peaceful assembly and association of care and support providers and recipients, without any form of coercion or threat, in accordance with ILO Convention No. 190 on Violence and Harassment and the Convention of Belém do Pará. They must also examine the effects of their activities on the right to care and support in society and among their workers, consistent with ILO Convention No. 156 concerning workers with family responsibilities.

The Special Rapporteurs call on States to incorporate recognition of the human rights to care and support as part of their duty to ensure substantive equality and the active participation of women workers in all organizational and decision-making spaces. This requires gender-sensitive public policies, adequate investment, and a firm commitment to eliminating stereotypes that continue to limit the full exercise of women's human rights in all their diversity.

The mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association was established by resolution 15/21, adopted by the Human Rights Council in October 2010, and renewed by resolutions 24/5 in September 2013, 32/32 in June 2016, 41/12 in July 2019, and 50/17 in July 2022.

Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.

Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/

The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mandate stems from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the region and acts as an advisory body to the OAS on the matter. The IACHR is made up of seven independent members who are elected by the OAS General Assembly in their personal capacity, and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

The Office of the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights (REDESCA) is a mechanism established by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to strengthen the promotion and protection of these rights in the Americas, leading the Commission's efforts in this field.

No. RD086/25

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