The Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Advisory Opinion OC-31/25 represents a landmark step in the recognition of caregiving as a matter of human rights. By defining care as an autonomous right, the Court elevated it from a derivative concept embedded in rights to health, education, or labor, to a self-standing entitlement that imposes direct obligations on States.
The consequences are profound: families gain enforceable entitlements to caregiving services and support; parenting is redefined as a state-supported right; and caregiving itself—long marginalized as private, unpaid, and gendered labor—is recognized as socially indispensable work.
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