A/68/293 services within the community. States also have an obligation to ensure, as a matter of priority, access to reproductive, prenatal, postnatal and child health care. 53 47. Ensuring the enjoyment of rights of other members of the population — such as older persons, children and persons with disabilities — will also prove beneficial to their caregivers, by alleviating and redistributing intensive care needs. In this regard, inter alia, States are required to provide physical as well as psychological rehabilitative measures aimed at maintaining the functionality and autonomy of older persons; and attention and care for chronically and terminally ill persons. 54 5. Right to social security 48. The right to social security 55 provides that all persons have the right to equal enjoyment of adequate protection from social risks and contingencies, through contributory (social insurance) or non-contributory (social assistance) schemes, without discrimination of any kind. 56 Social security benefits such as old age pensions, child benefits and unemployment benefits, while not directly providing care, can play an important role in helping households purchase essential inputs (food, school materials, and health services) or to pay for care services where necessary. 49. However, the demands of unpaid care work often force women into precarious and informal jobs not covered by social insurance schemes linked to employment, such as paid parental leave, unemployment insurance or pensions. This further contributes to their poverty and economic dependency on men. 50. Even those women who are able to combine unpaid care work with formal jobs are disadvantaged; their work histories and social security contributions are more likely than those of men to be interrupted by periods of full-time caregiving, and therefore they are less likely to receive an adequate pension on retirement. Thus, the gendered division of unpaid care work is one of the key reasons why older women are more likely to live in poverty than their male counterparts. 51. In contexts where the majority of the population is not formally employed and does not benefit from contributory social insurance, social assistance schemes such as social transfers are critical to ensure sufficient income for an adequate standard of living, and to purchase the necessary inputs into caregiving. Under human rights law, States parties are obliged to establish non-contributory schemes in order to uphold this right for the most disadvantaged and marginalized groups. 57 For example, social pensions often play a critical role in ensuring that women receive adequate protection in old age (see A/HRC/14/31). 52. Policymakers must ensure that unpaid care work does not hamper women’s equal enjoyment of the right to social security. Social security and social assistance programmes must take account of women’s unequal burden of unpaid care work. 58 For example, States must take measures to ensure that social insurance schemes are __________________ 53 54 55 56 57 58 13-42271 Ibid., para. 44. Ibid., para. 25. See, for example, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, articles 22 and 25; and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, article 9. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 19. Ibid., paras. 23 and 50. Ibid., para. 32. 13/24