A/68/293 care for as rights holders. A transformative approach is clearly required under human rights law, including tackling gender stereotypes and traditional roles. 81 In order to move effectively towards this, State policies must recognize and value the importance of unpaid care, but without reinforcing care work as women’s sole responsibility or supporting particular models of the family to the exclusion of others. 71. As the causes and consequences of unpaid work inequalities are multilayered, multiple and complementary, policy interventions to effectively remedy their negative effects will be necessary. The recommendations in the present report concentrate on the measures that are most likely to be accessible and effective for women living in poverty. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur places particular emphasis on the imperative for States to provide accessible and high-quality public services and infrastructure, in particular in the most disadvantaged areas. Conversely, the report does not contain detailed recommendations on issues like parental leave, maternity pay and flexible work arrangements. Despite the importance of these measures, in the context of extensively informal employment relations they would not reach the vast majority of women living in poverty around the world. 72. Both developed and developing countries have voluntarily assumed international human rights obligations regarding women’s human rights and gender equality that require them to take immediate actions to address unpaid care work. Addressing unpaid care is not an option that States can choose to act upon only after achieving a certain level of development. Still, given the wide diversity of country contexts, States must consider which specific policy options are most relevant given the challenges they face in achieving gender equality. For example, measures related to physical infrastructure and timesaving domestic technologies may be more of an imperative in low-income countries. 73. In line with the human rights approach, all policies must be participatory in their design and implementation, provide for accountability and redress mechanisms and be based on the objective to meaningfully empower women socially, politically and economically. A. Establishing a consistent and comprehensive legal and policy framework 74. A wide range of laws and legislation are relevant to addressing unpaid care work. These include employment law, anti-discrimination law, family law, and legislation focused specifically on carer’s rights. States must go beyond gender-neutral responses and ensure that laws and policies in all these areas actively alleviate the disadvantages that unpaid caregivers experience. To this end, States should develop mechanisms to ensure that laws and policies do not have unintended adverse effects on unpaid caregivers and do not enforce or perpetuate gender stereotypes. 75. First, those States that have not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women should do so __________________ 81 18/24 See, for example, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, article 5. 13-42271