On the United Nations International Day of Care and Support, Autism-Europe (AE) joins the global community in reaffirming that care and support are fundamental human rights and public goods. This year’s observance, held on 29 October, calls attention to the crucial role of care and support systems in promoting equality, inclusion, and social justice, values at the heart of the disability and gender equality agendas.
A new global focus on care and support
The International Day of Care and Support was established by the UN General Assembly in 2023 to recognise the essential contribution of care work both paid and unpaid to sustainable development and human rights. It also serves to highlight that equitable and accessible quality care systems are indispensable for achieving gender equality and ensuring the inclusion of persons with disabilities.
This year, the day takes place shortly after the official launch of the thematic report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Ms. Heba Hagrass, titled “Care and support for children with disabilities within the family environment and its gendered dimensions” (A/80/170). The report, available in all six official UN languages and in an English easy-to-read version, examines the intersection between disability, gender, and caregiving. It underscores that most care for children with disabilities is carried out by women whose unpaid and unrecognised work comes at significant social and economic cost.
Autism-Europe’s contribution: amplifying the voices of families
Autism-Europe contributed to this landmark report by providing evidence from a survey conducted among its members across Europe on the realities faced by informal carers of autistic children and adults. This consultation, carried out in early 2025, revealed widespread challenges linked to lack of services, financial insecurity, and gender disparities in caregiving. AE’s findings were cited twice in the final report, informing the analysis of the gendered and economic dimensions of care.
The report references AE’s survey data showing that in families of autistic children, mothers are the primary caregivers in 68% of cases, while only 3% identified the father as the main caregiver. The remaining families shared caregiving responsibilities to varying degrees. This evidence underscores the gendered nature of unpaid care within families of children with disabilities.
Further, AE’s input highlighted the severe economic impact of caregiving. 85% of families of autistic children in Europe reported that their income was negatively affected, with 42% of primary caregivers leaving their jobs and 32% reducing their working hours. These findings reflect the systemic gaps in accessible services and flexible employment policies for families of persons with disabilities.
Through these contributions, Autism-Europe helped ensure that the experiences of autistic people and their families in Europe are reflected in global discussions on care and support. AE’s submission drew attention to the urgent need for comprehensive, community-based support systems that uphold the rights and dignity of both autistic people and their caregivers.
A rights-based and gender-transformative approach to care
In her keynote presentation at the UN event “Building inclusive and rights-based care and support systems: the links between unpaid care, women, and children with disabilities” held on 24 October 2025 in New York, Special Rapporteur Heba Hagrass emphasised that care must be understood not as charity or private duty, but as a collective social responsibility grounded in human rights. “When we invest in care and support, we invest in equality,” she stated.
The report calls for the development of inclusive, gender-responsive, and human-rights-based care and support systems. This requires structural change, including policy reform. This call echoes the “5Rs framework” highlighted during the event by UN Women’s Monjurul Kabir. Transformative care requires us to: Recognise, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward, and Resource caring responsibilities.
Families of autistic people: navigating invisible barriers
The report and AE’s own research both show that families of autistic people frequently face systemic obstacles in accessing services, inclusive education, and adequate financial support. Caregivers often must fill the gaps left by insufficient public services, taking on multiple roles as advocates, coordinators, educators and personal care assistants, including for their adult relatives. This unpaid work contributes to chronic stress, burnout, and economic exclusion.
The Special Rapporteur’s findings highlight that especially in employment and social protection. Mothers are particularly affected, often forced to leave the workforce due to lack of accessible services, flexible working arrangements, and respite care. This dynamic perpetuates the gender pay gap and leaves many women at risk of poverty and isolation.
Autism-Europe continues to call for policies that value and support unpaid carers, ensuring that care responsibilities do not result in social exclusion and that families have a choice and can rely on affordable, quality and rights-based support services. This requires the development of person-centred, community-based support services that enable autistic people to exercise their right to self-determination, live independently and participate fully in society, in line with the UN CRPD, as recently recalled in the Turin Declaration we co-authored.
Linking global action with European policy
The themes of the UN report resonate strongly with ongoing efforts in the European Union. The European Disability Rights Strategy 2021–2030 and the European Care Strategy both recognise the need to strengthen care and support systems while promoting gender equality. However, Autism-Europe stresses that implementation must explicitly address the specific needs of autistic people and their families, including the intersectional barriers faced by women carers.
To achieve truly inclusive and equitable care systems, Autism-Europe urges European and national authorities to increase investment in quality community-based services, such as respite care and early support, ensuring that families are not left to shoulder responsibilities alone. Notably, we call on the EU legislators to clearly earmark funding for social and care policies under the next 7-year EU budget (2028-2034) ensuring that the ambitions of the European Care Strategy are matched with sufficient resources. This aligns with the recent joint statement “Time for decisive investments in care services” issued by the European Care Alliance, which urges the EU to explicitly reference the European Care Strategy in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and related regulations. Strengthening financial protection for families of autistic people remains equally vital to address the additional costs that often accompany disability. In parallel, employment policies need to become more flexible and inclusive, allowing carers to balance paid work and caregiving without penalty.
Autism-Europe further calls for the recognition of discrimination by association as a form of disability-based discrimination, in line with the recommendations of the UN report. This principle is not new. Autism-Europe has long advocated for its recognition as a key element of EU equality law. It was first established in the landmark ECJ case Coleman v. Attridge Law (C-303/06) and has been reaffirmed in the recent judgment of 11 September 2025 (Case C-38/24). In this ruling, the Court clarified that EU equality law protects workers who care for children with disabilities from indirect discrimination, and that employers will be required to provide reasonable accommodations to enable them to balance their professional and caregiving responsibilities. The European Parliament has also recognised the importance of this concept in its Resolution on harmonising the rights of autistic persons (4 October 2023), which calls for stronger protection against discrimination affecting autistic people and their families. Finally, genuine participation of autistic people and their families in shaping and monitoring policies is essential to ensure that care and support systems reflect their lived realities and uphold their rights.
Towards inclusive and equitable care systems
The 2025 International Day of Care and Support reaffirms that care is not a burden but a foundation of inclusive societies. For families of autistic people, accessible and adequately funded care systems are essential to ensure equality, dignity, and participation. Autism-Europe welcomes the Special Rapporteur’s report as an important step toward recognising the realities of families of persons with disabilities and calls on governments to build on this momentum by implementing inclusive, sustainable care systems that uphold the rights of both those who provide and those who receive care.
Further information:
- UN International Day of Care and Support: https://www.un.org/en/observances/care-and-support-day
- Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, A/80/170: https://docs.un.org/en/A/80/170
- Autism-Europe’s submission: Autism-Europe submits report to UN on family care for children with disabilities