The last three decades have seen remarkable changes in economic structures and policies both within and across countries, loosely captured by the term globalization. This paper reviews evidence on how key aspects of globalization processes have impacted the real economy, in terms of employment and social conditions of work...

In the present report unpaid care work is positioned as a major human rights issue. Focusing on women caregivers, particularly those living in poverty, the Special Rapporteur argues that heavy and unequal care responsibilities are a major barrier to gender equality and to women’s equal enjoyment of human rights,...

The communication represented the first instance of maternal mortality to be addressed by the international system of human rights, and examined accountability of health provision, in relation to compounding forms of discrimination. The victim was a poor woman of Afro-Brazilian ethnicity. The ethnic, socio-economic and gender factors were widely...

Consequences of childbirth led to a medical condition that would temporarily prevent rigorous physical activities, and subsequently have implications for the complainant’s work duties upon returning to Plan International Benin after maternity leave, due to the necessity of daily motorcycle travel. During extended maternity leave, she was dismissed on...

This case addressed the circumstances of thirty-three women who had been dismissed from various forms of employment on the basis of being pregnant. Article 53 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Colombia allows for the direct application of international law by domestic legal bodies. Ratified conventions and...

This document, published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), examines the concept of care from a rights perspective. It presents care policies in Latin America and analyzes in particular experiences of social organization of care in four countries: Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and...

The focus of this report is the indispensability of the human right to social security in contributing to integration and conquering inequalities, which must be tackled across the board from a platform of national protection. The report offers a framework and a set of methodological tools for analyzing the...

Summary: Over recent years, social protection strategies have rapidly gained striking political support and widespread acceptance in development discourse and practice. However, although development actors generally acknowledge that human rights should play an essential role in poverty reduction, there has been a lack of deep analysis of the implications...

Summary: Women’s productive and reproductive roles are often described as being ‘in conflict’, as women’s increasing labour force participation has not automatically resulted in fundamental change in their childcare and domestic responsibilities. Gender stereotypes regarding women’s roles both at work and at home constrain their work opportunities and perpetuate...

This working paper summarizes some of the linkages between gender inequality and access to social protection, then discusses the contribution of national social protection floors as powerful tools in reducing gender inequalities and women’s poverty, and summarizes recent developments in the international legal framework relevant to gender equality and...

Summary The present report highlights the importance of social protection measures in the Millennium Development Goals agenda. It also stresses that social protection measures designed, implemented and evaluated within the framework of a rights-based approach are more likely to ensure the achievement of the Goals and to result in...

This report focuses on cash transfer programmes (CTPs) from a human rights perspective. CTPs are non-contributory programmes  providing payments in the form of cash to individuals or households. The primary objective of  CTPs is to increase the real income of beneficiaries in order to enable a minimum level of  consumption within...

Social protection systems have the potential to transform social and economic gender dynamics. However, to achieve this end, they must be designed taking into account the different types of risks and vulnerabilities to poverty experienced by men and women; the underlying causes of discrimination against and exclusion of women;...

From a human rights perspective, social protection programmes should recognize the role of women as caregivers and the burden that this role can create. For example, when women are made responsible for complying with conditions attached to participation in a conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme (for example, taking children...

Social protection policies play important roles in giving women access to labour markets, addressing economic risks faced by working families and helping poor households meet their basic needs. Photo credit: “Visit to Western Kenya discussing changes in the climate and weather with men and women farmers” by Climate Change,...

Social protection programmes that mainstream the inclusion of women require policy makers  to assess the underlying causes of exclusion, and take deliberate measures to address women’s gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities. For example, States must pay particular attention to eligibility criteria and targeting methods used to ensure that the programme...

Child and family benefits, in cash and in kind, play a particularly important role in realizing children’s rights and addressing their needs, particularly for the most vulnerable members of society. Evidence from many parts of the world demonstrates that social protection benefits have led to a marked improvement in...

Summary: Four male applicants, above the age of 60 but below 65, mounted a constitutional challenge to Section 10 of South Africa’s Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004 and the relevant Regulations, which set the age for accessing an old age grant at 60 for women and 65 for...

Any element of social policy which hopes to be successful needs to take gender equality into account. This is true for social protection systems, and there has been good work done on this, notably by the ILO and others. This consideration of gender-sensitive social protection systems can be taken...

The good and the bad: summarizing the evidence on social protection and gender equality Social protection programmes with conditionalities have undoubtedly connected with issues of women’s rights to equality. Indeed, the achievements of conditional cash transfers are proven and tangible, especially for women and girls, who are disproportionately at...

Is the empowerment of women through conditional cash transfers illusory as women are ‘empowered’ by these programmes only as the nodal points receiving cash for the family and not as independent persons with their own economic, social and cultural rights? First, it is important to distinguish between the positive...

ILO and the right to social security: implicit assumptions about women The twentieth century witnessed the development of national social security and social protection mechanisms aimed at providing economic, social and public answers to address social risks. Social security schemes were based on the assumption that either women were...

The World Bank (WB) has called economic participation—that is, participation in the labour force—smart economics. Not all forms of participation in public life are smart economics according to the WB, though. The Bank’s World Development Report (WDR) 2012 values women’s voice in society and their political participation for themselves—a...

The role of women’s organizations Due to the high relevance of women’s participation for the success of social protection programmes it is, in my view, necessary to give at least the most important women’s organizations of a country a statutory right to take part in the respective processes of...