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We Called the UN CESCR to Recognise the Human Right to Care and Support in Reviews of Chile and Colombia
On 8 August, together with Public Services International (PSI), we submitted two written reports to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) as part of its review of Chile and Colombia. Both submissions urge the Committee to take a decisive step towards the recognition of the human right to care and support as part of the right to an adequate standard of living, and to consider issuing a General Comment on this right.
Our reports highlight how, despite important policy advances in recent years, both countries face persistent structural challenges: high levels of unpaid care work performed predominantly by women, precarious working conditions in paid care sectors, territorial and socio-economic inequalities in access to care services, and chronic underfunding of public provision.
For Colombia, the submission acknowledges milestones such as the creation of the National Care System and the Care Mission, but warns that institutional weakness, insufficient budgets, informality, and entrenched gender stereotypes continue to limit rights realisation. For Chile, the report notes opportunities presented by the draft law creating the National System of Supports and Care, while underlining the need for stronger public institutions, progressive financing, statistical visibility, and labour protections for care workers.
Both reports outline a rights-based framework for care grounded in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, encompassing the rights to care for others, to receive care, to self-care, and to care for the environment. They call for universal, quality public care services guided by the principles of the Global Manifesto for Public Services and financed through progressive taxation, alongside the application of the Principles for Human Rights in Fiscal Policy.
By centring care as a fundamental human right, we urge the CESCR to provide clear normative guidance and to support States in building equitable, gender-just and sustainable care systems that protect the rights of both caregivers and those receiving care.
Our involvement in these submissions was conducted to implement our 2022-2025 Strategic Plan Blueprint, regarding the treatment of care as a collective good and a social responsibility.
Review our full reports below.
