Aug 7, 2025
In a landmark development, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has affirmed for the first time that the right to care is an autonomous human right under the American Convention on Human Rights.
In its Advisory Opinion OC-31/25, the Court ruled that caregiving, whether paid or unpaid, is essential to human dignity and must be legally recognized and protected. Requested by the Argentine Republic, the opinion outlines how governments across the Americas must safeguard the rights of people who provide care and those who depend on it.
“We are very pleased that the Court emphasized that caregiving, both paid and unpaid, must be recognized as a form of work that requires legal and social protection,” said Jeffrey Vogt, director of the Solidarity Center’s International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) Network. “It also importantly stressed that caregiving plays a vital role in ensuring human dignity and the functioning of society.”
The ILAW Network, alongside the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), played a key role in securing this legal victory, submitting an amicus brief urging the Court to affirm care work as deserving of full labor protections. Co-authored by ILAW members Cynthia Benzion, María Paula Lozano and Alejandra Trujillo, the brief reflects years of Solidarity Center commitment to advancing care workers’ rights.
“The moment you go to work, we are there taking care of your home and taking care of your children. Our work makes it possible for you to do your work. Society must recognize the value of domestic workers,” said Chirlene Dos Santos Brito, the Secretary of Trade Union Training at Brazil’s National Federation of Domestic Workers (FENATRAD).
What the Court Ruled
The Court’s opinion sets out a clear framework for state responsibilities under international human rights law:
- States must adopt policies ensuring fair and equitable working conditions for paid care workers, including recognition of their labour rights. The Court underscored the importance of freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively in this context.
- Unpaid care work, disproportionately borne by women, must be addressed through comprehensive care systems, parental leave, flexible work policies, and access to social security.
- Those who provide unpaid care must be protected against exclusion from social protection systems and should have access to maternity and paternity benefits, pensions and contributory support.
- States should progressively ensure that workers with family responsibilities can exercise their right to work without discrimination, for which they should implement measures to reconcile work and care responsibilities and remove barriers that prevent care responsibilities from allowing them to access or remain in employment
- States must adopt differentiated strategies to protect the rights of vulnerable groups involved in care work, including migrant domestic workers, who can be trapped in exploitative working conditions, including forced labor.
A Democratic Imperative
This ruling reflects a more profound truth: when workers join together to defend their rights—whether in a workplace, a community, or before the highest courts—they shape the laws and policies that affect everyone. Recognizing care as a human right affirms that those who provide care, paid or unpaid, have the power to influence decisions that make life better not just for themselves, but for society as a whole. That is the foundation of a healthy democracy.
“This opinion sets a new standard in the Inter-American System by anchoring care within the human rights framework,” said Lozano. “It reinforces states’ duties to advance justice and build more inclusive economies.”
From Law to Action
This milestone builds on years of collaboration across Solidarity Center teams and with partners throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. “The decision creates new momentum for unions, civil society, and grassroots advocates to secure legal and policy reforms, from improved labor standards to publicly supported care systems, added Trujillo. “Now the real work begins to ensure these rights are realized in practice.”
The Solidarity Center will continue working alongside allies to transform this legal precedent into meaningful change for working people—and in doing so, to strengthen the foundations of democratic societies.
Jul 4, 2025
In a groundbreaking opinion with global implications for workers and labor rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on July 3 affirmed that states have a legal obligation to protect human rights in the face of the climate emergency, including the rights of working people.
The court’s advisory opinion, requested by the governments of Chile and Colombia, marks the first time an international tribunal has directly linked the climate crisis to core labor rights and protections. It reinforces that climate change is not only an environmental challenge but also a human and workers’ rights issue.
The Solidarity Center’s International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) Network played a central role in elevating the labor movement’s voice in the process. ILAW’s legal brief, cited by the Court, highlighted how climate change disproportionately harms workers—especially agricultural workers, migrants, and people in the informal economy—and outlined the need for just transition policies rooted in consultation with unions.
“The recognition that governments must work with trade unions to develop and implement just transition strategies is a major step forward in international law,” said Jeffrey Vogt, Solidarity Center Rule of Law Director and ILAW Network co-founder. “The Court’s opinion makes clear that labor rights, including freedom of association, are essential to any climate response.”
Just Transition Is Not Optional
The Court held that all member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) are obligated to adopt strong measures that reduce climate risks and protect people from its harmful effects. Among its most significant findings:
- Workers and unions must be consulted in designing and implementing climate and labor transition policies.
- Governments have a duty to prevent and mitigate job-related health and safety risks from climate impacts, including heat exposure.
- States must proactively develop job creation strategies that promote sustainable development and protect livelihoods as industries evolve.
The Court cited ILAW’s argument that defending labor rights, including for the most vulnerable, is essential to achieving a truly just transition. This builds on longstanding international labor standards and aligns with International Labour Organization (ILO) guidelines.
According to ILO estimates, by 2030, productivity losses due to extreme heat could be equivalent to 80 million full-time jobs. Without stronger protections and planning, that number could soar even higher.
A Voice for Workers in Global Climate Law
The Inter-American Court received more than 260 amicus briefs from over 600 organizations and experts, but few focused squarely on the experience of working people. The ILAW Network’s submission ensured that the lived reality of workers—those most exposed to climate impacts—was at the center of the conversation.
ILAW also participated in the Court’s public hearings in Bridgetown, Barbados, where advocates emphasized how climate change is already disrupting jobs, threatening health, and exacerbating inequality for working people globally.
This ruling is expected to influence climate-related legal opinions and decisions around the world, including an anticipated opinion from the International Court of Justice. It sets a new standard for how governments must integrate labor rights and worker safety into their national climate strategies.
This ruling is also a clear reminder of how unions and worker organizations strengthen democracy. When workers have a voice—especially in legal and policy spaces where everyday people are often left out—they can help shape decisions that protect not only their own lives and jobs, but entire communities. It’s one more way labor movements play a vital role in making societies fairer, safer, and more accountable.
Learn More
Explore the ILAW Network’s recent report on climate justice and just transition laws to better understand the legal tools available to protect workers in the climate emergency.
Click here to learn more about our climate and worker rights programming.
The Solidarity Center and ILAW’s work on this case was generously funded by private donors.
Jul 2, 2025
A federal judge affirms jurisdiction in Solidarity Center’s lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s cancellation of international labor rights programs, paving the way for court review and potential reinstatement.
Contact: Solidarity Center, [email protected]
This week, a federal judge ruled that our lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s abrupt cancellation of the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB)-funded worker rights programs can move forward in federal district court. Represented by Public Citizen, we argued that the termination was in violation of the law. In its opinion this week, the court agreed that it has the power to hear our claims.
While we were not granted immediate emergency relief, this is a critical step. The case will now proceed in the court best positioned to provide meaningful remedies, including the potential restoration of our ILAB-funded projects and a reaffirmation that the law must be followed.
This case is about more than funding. It’s about defending programs that support female workers standing up to workplace violence in West Africa, agricultural workers in Central America demanding safer conditions, and manufacturing workers in Mexico using labor rights to hold employers accountable under trade agreements – rights that help ensure U.S. companies sourcing from these factories aren’t profiting from exploitation. These are the people behind the policies, workers whose lives and communities are directly affected when labor rights enforcement disappears.
When all workers—whether in the U.S. or globally—can demand fair treatment and safe workplaces, it helps level the playing field for everyone.
We filed this lawsuit to protect their rights, uphold the rule of law, and push back against attempts to weaken fair trade and global labor standards. We’ll keep fighting in court—and alongside workers.
About the Solidarity Center
The Solidarity Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works with unions and worker organizations around the world to promote and protect labor rights. It supports frontline efforts to improve wages, working conditions and workplace safety, combat exploitation and advance the rule of law in the global economy. Learn more: www.solidaritycenter.org/stopping-the-race-to-the-bottom/
About Public Citizen Litigation Group
Public Citizen Litigation Group is the litigating arm of the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen Foundation. Founded in 1972, the Litigation Group has a long track record of holding federal agencies accountable and enforcing the rule of law in defense of the public good. Learn more: www.citizen.org/litigation.
Apr 15, 2025
Media Contacts
Solidarity Center: [email protected]; Public Citizen: Emily Leach, [email protected]
The Solidarity Center, Global March Against Child Labour, and the American Institutes for Research (AIR), represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, filed a lawsuit today challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s unlawful termination of congressionally authorized international labor rights programs.
The lawsuit challenges the Department’s halt on funding for programs administered by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB). These longstanding, bipartisan programs are the backbone of U.S. efforts to uphold labor standards in global trade, combat child and forced labor and protect American and global workers and businesses from unfair competition.
“Programs like those run by our clients, which promote stronger labor standards and better working conditions worldwide, are both critical from a human rights standpoint and necessary to ensure that American companies and workers, as well as workers around the world, aren’t undercut in the global marketplace,” said Stephanie Garlock, lead counsel at Public Citizen. “Congress required the Department of Labor to fund these crucial programs. The Secretary of Labor has no authority to refuse to do so.”
The plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent further harm and restore funding lawfully appropriated by Congress.
The Solidarity Center, a U.S.-based nonprofit labor organization, had support for all 11 of its ILAB-funded projects terminated – totaling nearly $80 million. These programs, implemented in more than 15 countries, have supported workers organizing for better wages, enforcing safety standards and holding trade partners accountable under agreements like the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The termination of Global March Against Child Labour’s single largest grant will impact around 40,000-50,000 children in Uganda, Peru and Nepal as its implementing partners’ program developing child-labor-free municipalities cooperating with national governments has halted. The result will be tens of thousands of children out of school and a stoppage of preventive community work within supply chains like coffee production — even though these supply chains are crucial for U.S. companies’ imports.
“This case is about more than funding – it’s about protecting workers and enforcing the law,” said Shawna Bader-Blau, Executive Director of the Solidarity Center. “When governments or companies exploit workers to cut costs, it drags down wages and standards everywhere – including in the U.S. These programs are vital to ensuring fair trade and dignity on the job, from Honduras to Ohio.”
“Cutting ILAB programs dismantles one of the main tools we have to fight worker exploitation in the global economy,” Bader-Blau added. “From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, most of what we buy is produced across complex supply chains that stretch around the world. ILAB programs help make sure those workers aren’t being abused – and that businesses that don’t play by the rules don’t get an advantage by exploiting workers overseas. We owe it to workers in America and around the world, to responsible businesses and to our trade partners to do better.”
About the Solidarity Center
The Solidarity Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works with unions and worker organizations around the world to promote and protect labor rights. It supports frontline efforts to improve wages, working conditions and workplace safety, combat exploitation and advance the rule of law in the global economy.
Learn more: www.solidaritycenter.org/stopping-the-race-to-the-bottom/.
About Public Citizen Litigation Group
Public Citizen Litigation Group is the litigating arm of the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen Foundation. Founded in 1972, the Litigation Group has a long track record of holding federal agencies accountable and enforcing the rule of law in defense of the public good.
Learn more: www.citizen.org/litigation.
El Centro de Solidaridad presenta una demanda para impugnar la terminación de los Programas Globales de Derechos Laborales
15 de abril, 2025
Contactos de prensa: Centro de Solidaridad: [email protected] o Emily Leach, Public Citizen: [email protected]
El Centro de Solidaridad, la Marcha Global Contra el Trabajo Infantil y los Institutos de Investigación Estadounidenses (AIR), representados por el Grupo de Litigios de Public Citizen, presentaron hoy una demanda impugnando la terminación ilegal por parte del Departamento de Trabajo de los Estados Unidos de los programas internacionales de derechos laborales autorizados por el Congreso.
La demanda impugna la decisión del Departamento de suspender la financiación de programas administrados por la Oficina de Asuntos Laborales Internacionales (ILAB). Estos programas bipartidistas llevan mucho tiempo activos y son fundamentales en los esfuerzos de EE. UU. para defender los estándares laborales en el comercio mundial, combatir el trabajo infantil y el trabajo forzado y proteger de la competencia desleal a las empresas estadounidenses y a todos los trabajadores.
“Los programas de nuestros clientes, que promueven normas laborales más estrictas y mejores condiciones laborales en todo el mundo, son fundamentales desde el punto de vista de los derechos humanos y también necesarios para garantizar que las empresas y los trabajadores estadounidenses, así como los trabajadores de todo el mundo, no se vean perjudicados en el mercado global,” declaró Stephanie Garlock, abogada principal de Public Citizen. “El Congreso exigió al Departamento de Trabajo que financiara estos programas tan cruciales. El secretario de Trabajo no tiene la potestad para negarse”.
Los demandantes quieren conseguir una medida cautelar y declaratoria para evitar más daños y restablecer la financiación legalmente asignada por el Congreso.
El Centro de Solidaridad, una organización laboral sin ánimo de lucro con sede en EE. UU., vio cancelados los fondos para los 11 proyectos que tenía financiados por el ILAB, por una suma de casi 80 millones de dólares. Estos programas, implementados en más de 15 países, han apoyado a los trabajadores que se organizan para conseguir mejores salarios, hacer cumplir las normas de seguridad y garantizar que los socios comerciales cumplan con las responsabilidades estipuladas en acuerdos como el Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá (T-MEC).
La terminación de la mayor subvención individual de la Marcha Global Contra el Trabajo Infantil afectará a entre 40,000 y 50,000 niños en Uganda, Perú y Nepal, ya que se ha detenido el programa de sus socios de implementación que establece municipios libres de trabajo infantil en cooperación con los gobiernos nacionales. El resultado será que decenas de miles de niños no irán a la escuela y se detendrá el trabajo comunitario preventivo en las cadenas de suministro como la producción de café, a pesar de que estas cadenas de suministro son cruciales para las importaciones de las empresas estadounidenses.
“Este caso va más allá de la financiación: se trata de proteger a los trabajadores y hacer cumplir la ley,” dijo Shawna Bader-Blau, directora ejecutiva del Centro de Solidaridad. “Cuando los gobiernos o las empresas explotan a los trabajadores para reducir costes, los salarios y las condiciones laborales se ven afectados en todas partes, incluso en Estados Unidos. Estos programas son vitales para garantizar el comercio justo y la dignidad en el trabajo, desde Honduras hasta Ohio.”
“Dejar sin fondos a los programas de ILAB desmantela una de las principales herramientas que tenemos para luchar contra la explotación de los trabajadores en la economía global,” añadió Bader-Blau. “Desde la ropa que llevamos hasta la comida que comemos, la mayor parte de lo que compramos se produce a través de complejas cadenas de suministro que se extienden por todo el mundo. Los programas de ILAB ayudan a garantizar que esos trabajadores no sean maltratados y que las empresas que no respetan las reglas no saquen ventaja explotando a los trabajadores en otros países. Los trabajadores de Estados Unidos y del resto del mundo, las empresas responsables y nuestros socios comerciales merecen algo mejor.”
Acerca del Centro de Solidaridad
El Centro de Solidaridad es una organización no partidista y sin ánimo de lucro que trabaja con sindicatos y organizaciones de trabajadores de todo el mundo para promover y proteger los derechos laborales. Apoya los esfuerzos en primera línea para mejorar los salarios, las condiciones de trabajo y la seguridad en el lugar de trabajo, combatir la explotación y promover el estado de derecho en la economía global.
Más información: www.solidaritycenter.org/stopping-the-race-to-the-bottom/
Acerca del Grupo de Litigios de Public Citizen
El Grupo de Litigios de Public Citizen es el brazo litigante de la organización sin ánimo de lucro de defensa del consumidor Public Citizen Foundation. Fundado en 1972, el Grupo de Litigios cuenta con amplia experiencia asegurando que las agencias federales cumplan con sus responsabilidades y que se observe el estado de derecho en defensa del bien público.
Más información: www.citizen.org/litigation.
