Statement by DHC Gilmore’s participation in the celebration of the United Nations International Day of Older Persons

Dear colleagues, dear participants,

We need to talk and we need to talk about ageing – talk so that older people are visible, recognized, included and valued. Older people with unique faces, with specific needs, great strengths, significant contributions to make, individuals imbued with fundamental human rights.

Today we are talking about those people. But tomorrow we will be talking about us: age is but a moment in life. Older or younger, we are all ageing. The question is not what to do about ageing but rather how can we create the conditions in which we have what we need to enjoy this vital phase of life.

The world is rapidly becoming much older. In 1950, there were 205 million persons aged 60 years or over in the world. At the outset of the next decade, there will be one billion older persons worldwide. And double that number by 2050.

This silent revolution of population ageing is unprecedented. It is happening everywhere but it is progressing fastest in developing countries: by 2050, nearly 80% of the world’s older persons will live in developing countries. This is an unprecedented phenomenon that has implications for all aspects of society.

Ageing is proving to be one of the most important transformations in human history.

Globally, the majority of older persons are women. Today, for every 100 women aged 60 or over worldwide, there are just 84 men. For every 100 women aged 80 or over, there are only 61 men.

Gender relations structure the entire lifecourse, influencing access to resources and opportunities, with an impact that is both ongoing and cumulative. And even with regards to ageing, men’s and women’s experience is different. In many situations, older women are more vulnerable to discrimination, have poor access to jobs and healthcare, greater exposure to abuse, are denied the right to own and inherit property, and lack even the most basic minimum income and social security.

But older men too, particularly after retirement, are vulnerable – more often their social support networks are weaker; they too can be subject to abuse, particularly financial abuse and their needs for health care can be debilitating if unmet.

Regionally the differences are significant.

Africa has the youngest population, with only 6 per cent aged 60 years while 22 per cent of Europe’s population is over 60. By 2050, it is expected that 10 per cent of the population in Africa will be 60 years and over. The other regions will also have dramatically increased the percentages of their older populations.

But this is a story of opportunities come with challenges.

Population ageing also brings huge social, economic and cultural challenges including an increasing demand for income security, health and long-term care. How countries address the challenges of population ageing and maximize the opportunities of a growing older population that will determine the future of humankind.

Urgent action is needed. Political commitment is needed to make the necessary reforms, ensure sustainable financing, and galvanize social endorsement: Everyone has to get involved: governments, civil society, communities, families and older persons themselves.

Across the world, our cultures, norms and traditions must evolve to affirm and include older people as active members of society whose contributions and rights are acknowledged, promoted, valued.

• Discrimination: Ageism is tolerated in societies across the world. Discrimination on the basis of age is often combined with other forms of discrimination, on the grounds of gender, race and ethnicity, religion, disability, health or socio-economic conditions, among others negatively affecting the enjoyment of the full range of human rights of older persons.
• Violence and abuse: Abuse of older persons - physical, emotional and/or sexual - by someone in a position of trust, occurs worldwide. Financial exploitation, too, is not infrequent and goes under-reported, and under-documented.
• Lack of specific measures and services: There are not enough resources and facilities to cope with the growing demand, particularly for specialized services such as residential centres, and long term home-care programmes or geriatric services, necessary to guarantee the human rights of older persons.
• Poverty: The single most pressing challenge to the welfare of older persons is poverty, characterized by homelessness, malnutrition, unattended chronic diseases, lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation, unaffordable medicines and treatments and income insecurity. Despite their own poverty, older persons are often the main providers for the household and the primary caregivers for grandchildren and other family members.

So

• First, we all must confront the inevitability of this scale of population ageing and embrace this need to adequately prepare for the growing numbers of older persons.
• Second, we must guarantee income security and access to essential health and social services for older people. To postpone medical disability, prevent impoverishment, discrimination and abuse and achieve a higher degree of intergenerational justice, social protection floors providing universal coverage must be implemented.
• Thirdly, given much of the disease burden can be easily prevented approaches are adopted that foster active and healthy ageing. An age-friendly physical environment with innovative technologies to compensate for failing sight and hearing can encourage active ageing while affordable housing and accessible transportation are essential to maintain independence and facilitate social contacts.
• Fourthly preparing for ageing is needed long before the 60 years milestone. Without strong intervention to achieve equal access for the “yet to be old” population to education, employment, health care and basic social services, without the tools to live decently in the present, people cannot lay down the emotional, physical and financial strengths they need to draw on in the future. Investing in young people today is the best investment to improve the lives of older persons tomorrow – provided this is combined with flexible employment, lifelong learning and retraining opportunities to enable and encourage current generations of older people to remain active in the labour market.
• And finally, a strong evidence base is essential for the formulation of effective policies and programmes that address the needs of older persons. Data collection and research must be promoted if we are to increase our understanding of population ageing, including research on the quality of life and health status of older persons; the economic, social and cultural implications of ageing; the interrelationship between rapid population ageing and socio-economic development and so on.

It is striking then that there is no explicit general prohibition of age discrimination in international human rights law. Instead, age ceilings continue to exist in many countries, preventing older persons to engage in labour or public office. This indicates a deep ageist prejudice against older persons, who are often stereotyped as being too passive, too dependent or simply too old to contribute to meaningful or productive activities.

The international community has still not produced a dedicated international protection regime for their rights. Standards at the national level are often weak, or absent all together – not least, as they relate to areas such as autonomy, an adequate standard of living, participation and freedom from violence, abuse or neglect.

Certainly, there have been some progress in making the rights of older persons more visible.
A number of existing human rights bodies - including the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health - have paid some attention to the human rights of older persons. However, this attention has been far from systematic. For instance, the rights of older persons have been practically invisible in human rights mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review.

In the last years, the situation has started to change – even if progress is still modest. In December 2010, the United Nations General Assembly established an Open Ended Working Group “for the purpose of strengthening the protection of the human rights of older persons by considering the existing international framework of the human rights of older persons and identifying possible gaps and how best to address them, including by considering, as appropriate, the feasibility of further instruments and measures”.

The Open Ended Working Group will hold its 7th session next December. While no consensus has yet been reached on the adoption of a new instrument dedicated to the human rights of older persons, the Working Group has certainly constituted an important forum for identifying the areas where the existing human rights framework has failed to offer adequate protection to older persons, and as a space for exchanging experiences and good practices from all over the world. Member States, UN agencies, academic experts and practitioners, and particularly Non-Governmental organizations have provided valuable inputs and made proposals to improve the protection of the human rights of older persons.

The human rights of older persons were also introduced in the agenda of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, which established a three-year mandate of an Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons. The mandate holder, Mrs. Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, was appointed in May 2014. The mandate is likely to be renovated this week.

The Social Forum, a subsidiary body of the Human Rights Council, also devoted its 2014 session to the human rights of older persons.

While these steps show a growing awareness of the importance of the issue, so much remains to be done. A specific protection regime at the international level – including a dedicated international instrument – would have the greatest reach and prominence, and provide coherence to an otherwise fragmented‎, uneven and incomplete landscape of legal norms. Standards related to the human rights of older persons need to be developed within a comprehensive framework recognising the indivisible, interdependent and interrelated nature of the rights it seeks to protect –coupled with adequate monitoring mechanisms to ensure that human rights of older persons are protected, respected and fulfilled in practice.

Ultimately, we must involve everyone in celebrating ageing and ensuring its passage is paved with dignity, with respect for human rights and with compassion. Everyone has a part to play: governments, civil society, communities, families and older persons – we all must ensure our cultures include the affirmation that older persons are valued, needed and important active members of their society.

The UN International Day of Older Persons is a perfect occasion to reflect on the positive steps taken but also on the challenges ahead us. In an ageing world, we need adequate legal and policy instruments to ensure the full participation of older persons in all areas of social life. The United Nations needs to play a strong role in this struggle, both because of our knowledge and technical expertise on the issue, and because of the principled demands that civil society organizations – including voices from among the affected groups themselves – are directing to us. Therefore, I would like to encourage all of us, from our respective roles, to be active participants in building inclusive societies where older persons are valued and can fully develop their potential.

Thank you.