A/68/293 Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities establish legally binding obligations that ought to compel States to address the issue of unpaid care. 10. The international human rights framework is further complemented by labour standards, in particular International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions such as Convention No. 156 on workers with family responsibilities, Convention No. 183 on maternity protection, 6 and Convention No. 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers. Compliance with all these obligations is essential in removing gender inequalities and discrimination and recognizing and redistributing unpaid care work. 11. As care is relational, in many ways the rights of caregivers are symbiotically intertwined with the rights of care receivers: overburdening caregivers with unpaid care work has an impact on the quality of the care they are able to provide. Therefore, when unpaid care work is not adequately recognized, supported or valued by the State, the rights of those who rely on care provision for their health, life and well-being may also be violated, particularly in low-income households. 7 For the rights of both caregivers and care receivers to be realized, the cost of care must be assumed by society more broadly. A. Inequality and discrimination 12. In both developed and developing countries women work longer hours than men when unpaid work is taken into account. 8 However, because of structural discrimination, the work women do in the home is seen as unskilled and less valuable to society, meaning that men not only receive higher earnings but also more recognition for their contribution. This situation renders many women socially and financially dependent on men, thereby restricting their agency and autonomy. 9 13. The unequal distribution of unpaid care work is highly reflective and determinative of power relations between women and men. Discriminatory gender stereotypes, which construe women as second-class citizens whose place is in the home, cause and perpetuate this unequal distribution of work, rendering women’s equal enjoyment of rights impossible. Addressing care responsibilities is thus an essential component of the obligations of States to ensure gender equality at home, work and in society more broadly. 14. The amount, intensity and drudgery of unpaid care work increase with poverty and social exclusion. Women and girls in poor households spend more time in unpaid work than in non-poor households, 10 in all countries at all levels of __________________ 6 7 8 9 10 13-42271 See also corresponding International Labour Organization Recommendations Nos. 165 and 191. International Labour Organization (ILO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Work and Family: Towards new forms of reconciliation with social co-responsibility (New York and Geneva, 2009). See Rania Antonopoulos, “The unpaid care work-paid work connection”, Levy Economics Institute, Working Papers Series (25 July 2008); Sarah Cook and Shahra Razavi, “Work and welfare: revisiting the linkages from a gender perspective”, UNRISD Research Paper No. 7 (Geneva, 2012); ActionAid, Making Care Visible: women’s unpaid care work in Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya (February 2013); available from www.actionaid.org. Shahra Razavi, The Political and Social Economy of Care in a Development Context. See, for example, ILO and UNDP, Work and Family. 5/24