NHRI 2020 Conference on the Rights of Older Persons

Video message by Michelle Bachelet,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
7 December 2020

I am honoured to address you today at this important event.  I thank the NHRI Working Group on Ageing – led by its Chair, Ms. Young-ae Choi of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea – for convening this discussion.

It will contribute to the work of the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing, as it develops proposals for an international legal instrument on the rights and dignity of older persons.

The pandemic is giving new urgency to this task. In the past year, it has claimed the lives of almost 1.4 million people. The majority were older people.  In this – as with other groups disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 – the pandemic is exploiting the weakness of our human rights protections. Economic, social and legal systems have long failed to give sufficient weight to protecting the rights and dignity of older persons – including their rights to health, social protections and decent housing.

Now, given their justifiable fear of contagion, as well as illness, social isolation, loneliness, poverty and unemployment, the pandemic has made older people deeply vulnerable.  Those living in care homes and institutions are particularly affected. 

Many national human rights institutions around the world are playing a key role in upholding and protecting the rights of older persons during the pandemic. Their advice and technical guidance to national and local authorities, and their contributions to awareness raising and capacity building, are nourished by focused, grassroots monitoring, and the investigation of specific complaints regarding the infringement of older people’s rights.

I commend this work. Together, we need to encourage all States to fully integrate a focus on older people into all policy responses to COVID-19. To achieve this, there need to be more discussions at national level, involving older people themselves. I also encourage increased sharing of good practices and experience – including at the regional and international levels. 

We also need more evidence and data that are age-disaggregated, to better understand the specific protection gaps that affect older people, and better develop international standards to address them.

The Secretary-General’s Policy Brief on the impact of COVID-19 on older people, which was issued in May, has created new momentum for the rights and dignity of older people. 146 Member States have endorsed a joint statement expressing commitment to fully promoting and respecting the dignity and rights of older people during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.  Similarly, 122 civil society organizations and networks around the world sent a joint letter to the Secretary-General, offering their support. The UN system has responded with multiple global and regional initiatives, including development of the Decade of Healthy Ageing – 2021-2030.

We need to keep strengthening these concerted efforts to advance the protection of older people's rights. I very much look forward to hearing about your discussions.

Thank you.