A/HRC/34/29 care, hitherto performed primarily by women, enables other members of society to enjoy their human rights at the expense of those women’s enjoyment of their own human rights. Such recognition should inform States’ social, economic and fiscal policies. In order to measure the economic worth of the unpaid work done by women, States could collect statistical data, embark on a valuation process, and incorporate unpaid work in the gross national product. This exercise could also lead to a better valuation of wages in care-related industries. 75. Posited on the principle that care is a collective responsibility, the social protection system is a critical tool for redistributing the burden of unpaid care on women and for mitigating its impact on older women. In its general comment No. 19 (2007) on the right to social security, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recommends that States develop schemes for covering, among other things, family and child support, and sickness and disability, to meet the needs for assistance and other related expenses and to enable carers to fulfil their responsibilities. These benefits, which could be in the form of cash entitlements and social services, should be available and accessible, especially for disadvantaged and marginalized individuals and households, including those working in the informal economy. Taking into account the resources and circumstances of the beneficiaries, they should also be adequate in amount, form and duration, so that care can be outsourced, for example. In this regard, the inclusion of care in social protection floors is of critical importance. Other good practices include allowing for care expenses to be deductible from income tax.52 76. States should alleviate the effect of career interruptions for unpaid care on older women’s income, through social protection. States could, for instance, design noncontributory pensions to ensure older women’s right to social security and to offset losses of earnings due to periods of unpaid care work. Another good practice is factoring women’s involvement in unpaid care into the determination of benefits under contributory schemes, by considering periods of child-rearing or care of dependents in the calculation of pension entitlements. 77. States should be mindful of the impact of economic policies on women’s unpaid work. Reductions in public social services, prompted by funding cuts in the context of austerity measures, could result in additional demands for unpaid care work on families, compelling some women to give up remunerated work. 53 At the same time, those who remain in employment end up carrying a heavier burden. Although the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and many other human rights mechanisms recommend that austerity measures should not disproportionately affect the rights of disadvantaged and marginalized individuals and groups, the gendered effect of budgetary cuts on unpaid care work is often overlooked by impact assessments. 54 VI. Conclusions 78. The commitments made with the recent adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals — especially goal 8 (target 8.5, under goal 8, “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”) and goal 5 (“Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”), together with the requirement contained in the 2030 Agenda that the goals 52 53 54 16 See, for example, CEDAW/C/MLT/CO/4, para. 20. Francesca Bettio and others. The Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Situation of Women and Men and on Gender Equality Policies (Luxembourg, European Commission, 2013). See, for example, A/HRC/26/39.