In a groundbreaking Advisory Opinion, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has recognized the human right to care — long an overlooked pillar of human well-being — as an autonomous and enforceable right, placing it on equal footing with the rights to receive and to provide care.
The Court emphasized that this human right has its own legal standing, as it safeguards the essential material and social conditions, including adequate time, sufficient resources, supportive relationships, and accessible services — conditions that enable the full enjoyment of a dignified life. When those conditions are omitted or neglected, the ability to exercise many other interdependent rights is undermined. Entrenched in the right to care, this autonomy is expressed in three dimensions: the right to be cared for, the right to care for others, and the right to self-care.
The Three Dimensions of the Right to Care
1. The Right to Be Cared For
Every person is entitled to receive care that is available, accessible, culturally appropriate and acceptable, and of high quality — regardless of income, age, health status, or location. This right protects persons who depend on others for their survival and well-being, including children, older adults, and people with disabilities.
2. The Right to Care for Others
All persons have the right to provide care — whether for family members, community members, or in a professional capacity — under conditions that respect their dignity, ensure fair labor protections for paid caregivers, and prevent economic or social disadvantage for unpaid caregivers.
3. The Right to Self-Care
Persons have the right to take care of their own physical, mental, and emotional well-being. This requires States to create environments and policies that make self-care possible, which includes access to preventive health services like reproductive health care, safe working conditions, adequate rest, and freedom from practices that undermine personal autonomy.
Why Self-Care Matters
The Court’s Advisory Opinion frames self-care as a legal entitlement — recognizing that the ability to care for oneself is foundational to living with dignity and exercising other rights. Without the means and freedom to practice self-care, individuals can be trapped in cycles of ill health, dependency, and economic vulnerability.
By placing self-care at the core of the right to care, the Court acknowledges that autonomy over one’s own health is not a privilege, but a right that States must actively enable and protect.
In articulating self-care as a human right, the Court situates it within a normative framework grounded in three governing principles. First, social and family co-responsibility locates care within a network of actors — individuals, families, communities, civil society, businesses, and the State — each bearing an obligation to sustain it. Second, the principle of solidarity affirms the necessity of mutual support among all members and institutions of society. Third, equality and non-discrimination impose a mandate to ensure that the provision and receipt of care do not reproduce structural inequalities, particularly those entrenched along gender lines.
State Obligations: Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute
To fulfill the right to care in all its dimensions, the Court outlined parameters that States should take into consideration when designing and adopting legal frameworks and public policies:
- Recognize the economic and social value of care, both paid and unpaid.
- Reduce the burdens and barriers that make caregiving — or self-care — inaccessible, unsafe, or inequitable.
- Redistribute care responsibilities more fairly between men and women and across the State, market, community, and families.
While the form of care systems will depend on national contexts and resources, the Court recognizes that a model that includes the aforementioned parameters can better contribute to effectively implementing the right to care.
Link to the Right to Health
Although autonomous, the right to care is closely linked to the right to health. Fulfilling it requires:
- Accurate and timely information to make health decisions, including reproductive and maternal health
- Free, prior, and informed consent before any medical decision
- Quality standards that are culturally acceptable, scientifically sound, and delivered with dignity
In Latin America and the Caribbean, persistent barriers — such as the scarcity of medical goods and services, high costs, discrimination, and widespread misinformation — continue to undermine the practical realization of both care and health rights.
A Call for Action
The Court’s recognition of the human right to care, and especially the right to self-care, calls for a rethinking of public policy. Governments must invest in care systems, expand parental leave, enforce labor protections, and ensure that people have the time, resources, and autonomy to look after themselves.
By embedding the right to care into national law and policy, States can move toward more equal, healthy, and sustainable societies — where caring for oneself and others is not left to individual circumstances but, rather, is supported as a shared social responsibility.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the O’Neill Institute.
