Towards Effective Human Rights Protections for Older Persons

Led by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and co-sponsored by HPOD as part of a broad coalition of prominent civil society and intergovernmental organizations, including UNDESA, the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, and the World Health Organization, this series of five roundtable events aimed to raise awareness of how existing policies and systems may be strengthened to better protect the human rights of older persons, and hopefully, to add to growing momentum towards adoption of a new human rights treaty capable of addressing the far-reaching challenges posed by the world’s rapidly aging population.

The past several decades have witnessed important efforts to strengthen international legal protections for older persons’ human rights, including the UN Principles for older persons (1991), the adoption of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing in 2002, the adoption of binding regional treaties on the rights of older persons in the Americas and Africa, the creation of the mandate for the UN Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons (2013), the adoption of the Inter-American Convention on the Rights of Older Persons (2015), the establishment of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030), recognition of the need to ensure that older persons are included in the global development agenda. Yet, ageism remains a persistent barrier to older persons' full and effective enjoyment and exercise of their human rights, and today’s pressing issues, from the rise of artificial intelligence, increased human mobility, and accelerating climate change, present new risks and opportunities.

Formed in 2010, the UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Ageing is actively working towards this end. In 2013, the UN General Assembly, through Resolution 67/139, charged the OEWG with presenting at the “earliest possible date” a proposal for an international legal instrument to promote and protect the rights and dignity of older persons not currently addressed sufficiently by existing mechanisms and thus requiring further international protection. Since then, the OEWG has worked systematically to investigate gaps in existing international human rights protections across a wide spectrum of life areas, ranging from education, training, life-long learning and capacity-building to autonomy and independence. Most recently, at its 13th session, the OEWG considered the potential challenges and solutions for strengthening protections of older persons’ human rights to promote their economic security, health care, and social inclusion. In May 2024, the OEWG will hold its 14th session at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. There, the OEWG will further deliberate on the results of an ongoing series of informal intergovernmental meetings aimed at identifying the best avenues for addressing gaps in existing international human rights protections for older persons that the OEWG has explored in its many sessions to date.

While the governments of UN Member States appear increasingly receptive to developing comprehensive legal and policy solutions for the planet’s aging population, throughout the OEWG’s work nongovernmental organizations and individual experts have endeavored to contribute to the ongoing intergovernmental debates and discussions. For example, last year, HPOD’s Executive Director Michael Ashley Stein joined a panel moderated by HPOD Senior Advisor Luis Gallegos and co-organized by HPOD, the Permanent Mission to the UN of Bolivia, the Group of Friends of Older Persons of the United Nations, the Global Initiative on Ageing, the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness, where panelists underscored the urgent need for additional legal tools to grapple with the challenges faced not only by individual older persons and their supporters but also by the governments and organizations that serve them. As demonstrated by the especially active role played by civil society during the negotiations leading up to the UN General Assembly's adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, sustained advocacy by civil society can play a powerful role in shaping the norms that government representatives end up supporting.

UNITAR’s second series of roundtable events has added to the growing chorus of calls for a speedy progress towards an international treaty. An array of expert panelists from across the globe added their voices to pressing risks and opportunities for protecting the human rights of older persons with regard to access to justice, employment, political participation, healthcare and social services, as well as cultural and recreational activities. Access the full slate of event recordings below:

• “Access to justice for older persons: Effective and participative systems” (June 2023)
• "Access to labor markets for older persons: Challenges and opportunities throughout the ageing process" (July 2023)
• "Access to political participation: Ageing with dignity through democratic societies" (September 2023)
• "Access to health and social care services: Further vulnerabilities merging from ageing" (October 2023)
• "Access to cultural and leisure activities: Tackling Individual interests and inter- generational social construction" (November 2023)