A/HRC/26/39 3. Reproduction and care functions 128. It is incumbent upon States and economic decision-makers to integrate the care economy as an integral part of macroeconomic policy and recognize the right to care as an economic and social right which requires a social protection floor; 129. States should recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work for children and other disabled or elderly dependents, by including unpaid care work in gross national product; allowing deduction of care expenses for tax purposes; improving the environmental and service infrastructure to reduce private care burdens; and synchronizing school time with working time; 130. Paid care leave should be provided on an equal basis to mothers and fathers; 131. Childcare should be guaranteed as a social protection floor and, in addition, States should encourage community, cooperative, trade union and corporate initiatives to provide care services; 132. States must prohibit discrimination on grounds of maternity or of care functions, whether performed by women or men; 133. States must provide paid maternity leave of at least 14 weeks, 6 of which are mandatory. Such leave should be fully paid and should be funded by social insurance or public funds. Maternity leave should be provided for women in the informal sector as well as the formal sector, entrepreneurship, trade and corporate boards. D. Older women 134. Provide adequate non-contributory pensions, on an equal basis with men, as a core social and economic right; 135. Ensure that women are not forced into early retirement; that women who have been economically active have access to adequate occupational pensions, including by introducing gender-specific compensatory measures such as accumulation of pension rights during maternity and childcare absences; unisex calculation of benefits; equalizing of mandatory retirement age and mandatory joint annuities. E. Violence against women 136. Eliminate all laws which discriminate against women by punishment of behaviours which are not punished when performed by men or by prescribing invasion of women’s physical integrity and autonomy; 137. Take preventive measures, deter and severely punish all forms of gender-based violence and sexual harassment against women in the public arena, including public transport and services, workplaces, educational institutions, streets and cyberspace, whether it is perpetrated by state agents or by private persons; 138. Take special measures to prohibit and prevent gender-based violence, including punishing intercourse with minors as rape, introduction of confidential school reporting mechanisms, capacity-building for police, child-friendly courts and barring sexual offenders from teaching. 23