Highlights from the Briefing by NGOs, NHRIs and academia

Panel:

Ms. Eugenia Fernan Zegarra, Ombudsperson, Defensoría del Pueblo de Perú

  1. National Human Rights Institutes (NHRIs) focus on supporting human rights and particularly the most vulnerable in society, including older persons.
  2. The Inter-American Convention supports minimizing the digital divide but is lacking in the areas of freedom of choice and the economic situation of older persons in access to technology.
  3. The right to both physical and mental health should be protected for older persons – during COVID there was an increase in mental health challenges and there will be greater demand for health services in specialized areas.
  4. There is also a need to do more in the area of long-term care services to respect decision-making capacities and older persons’ will and preferences. There should be free and informed consent for treatments, and legal capacity to make decisions should be recognised. It is also necessary to deal with the right to a dignified death, currently only recognised by Colombia in the region.
  5. There is a need and a role for an international convention to provide a regulatory framework and clarity on state obligations.

Mr. Beda A. Epres, Commissioner, Commission on the Human Rights of the Philippines

  1. Ageism and age discrimination deprive older persons of dignified lives. Protection of older persons’ rights is inadequate based on the specific nuances of older age. Older age is shaped by experiences earlier in life but the international system does not take a life course perspective. There is also a lack of data disaggregated by age.
  2. The best way to address these inadequacies and gaps is through a UN convention on the rights of older people. It would provide a clear baseline for the delivery of policies and services.
  3. The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) supports a new international legally binding instrument on the rights of older persons. A UN convention would frame older persons as rights holders, provide stronger conceptual guidance, and address inconsistent national standards.
  4. A UN convention would also would facilitate budgeting and the assignment of specific government offices dealing with older persons. It would also help NHRIs to do their job as a watchdog and bridge government implementation and the enjoyment of human rights on the ground.

Ms. Heidrun Mollenkopf, President of AGE Platform Europe and Board Member of BAGSO (German National Association of Senior Citizens’ Organisations)

  1. In 2017 when the right to freedom from violence, abuse and neglect was addressed by the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing, NGOs stepped up work on this issue in Germany, particularly to highlight the lack of protection for older persons in private and institutional care. This resulted in some improvements for those in need of care and carers in the following years however, progress was hampered by the lack of a clear legal framework for older persons as exists for children and women for example.
  2. The right to a life without violence is about more than violence in care situations. This begins with ageist hate speech, and ranges from invisible neglect to brutal attacks and structural discrimination. A UN convention would clearly identify these practices as human rights violations. It would provide binding commitments and constant monitoring that empower member states and other actors to innovate and drive consistent and gradual societal change to ensure that older persons can enjoy their right to a life without violence. Older persons would have access to information and support.
  3. Another area of importance for life in old age that is not secured by law neither on the national level nor in international human rights treaties concerns education, training, and lifelong learning post-employment. A UN convention would challenge age limits in access to training and learning, including non-formal or informal learning opportunities.
  4. This is particularly significant with the increasing use of digital media, products, services, and systems including automated decision-making by Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). Nothing has really changed in terms of the digital divide despite existing guidelines and ethics codes, and even regional or topic specific legislation, such as the European Accessibility Act. The human rights implications that may be associated with digitalisation for older people have not yet been addressed in existing international treaties.
  5. Only international human rights treaties, norms and standards, included in a UN convention on the rights of older persons, can fundamentally change our societies so that everyone – not just the older people of today – can live full and fulfilled lives.

Ms. Rose Gahire, Vice Chair of NSINDAGIZA Organisation, Rwanda

  1. For millions of older people the right to health and health services is not respected, protected or fulfilled. In Rwanda clear gaps exist in the key aspects of accessibility, availability, acceptability, good quality, and participation in the access to health and right to health. These gaps are even greater in long-term and palliative care services.
  2. Older people in Africa are among those who cannot afford to access health services. Many have no choice but to forgo seeking healthcare, or face impossible choices between health and other basic needs. Physical access to health services, even when an older person can afford to pay, is a challenge, especially for those living in rural areas.
  3. There is a dire lack of geriatric medicine and care and age discrimination and ageism are a further barrier to access. Having a voice and participating in one’s own care plan is an ideal rather than a reality for older people.
  4. The Rwandan National Older Persons Policy was signed by the government in 2021 but its implementation to date has been weak. International binding human rights standards are needed to guide policy development and ensure that they are fully implemented and monitored for progress.
  5. While the right to health is enshrined in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the right to long-term care and palliative care are not. Specific health-related articles for other populations in their international human rights instruments have been beneficial to them.
  6. Long-term and palliative care should be included in a new international treaty and the Universal Periodic  Review mechanism would review the status of the human rights of older Rwandans and Africans in the same way as other populations.

Mr. Israel (Issi) Doron, Dean of the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel

  1. There is a significant lack of a comprehensive and coherent human rights framework for older persons and this exposes a fundamental conceptual deficiency and not just specific gaps. This underlying conceptual gap can only be corrected by a unique and dedicated UN convention.
  2. From an academic point of view, the identification of gaps is possible with the time, effort and patience to read the protocols and submissions made by experts and civil society to the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing over the last 13 years. There have been plenty of other reports over many years from different processes that evidence significant gaps at all levels.
  3. Recognising intersectionality and the intersectional nature of ageing is important – old age almost always intersects with other characteristics or experiences. If we are serious about addressing the gaps in the human rights of older persons, we must be serious about building our understanding of intersectionality in human rights.
  4. Noting the October 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists against innocent civilians, where older people were also kidnapped, we need specific references to norms around older persons in times of war and conflict.
  5. The co-facilitators should propose a clear recommendation based on the ample evidence available that an international instrument is needed and work on this should move forward.