Bangladesh: UN expert to assess older persons’ human rights during official visit

GENEVA (7 November 2022) – United Nations Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, Claudia Mahler, will visit Bangladesh from 7 to 17 November 2022.

“Ageing population in Bangladesh is fast growing, becoming one of the emerging issues that has been gradually increasing challenges on health services, family relationships and social security,” Mahler said. As of 2019, more than 13 million people living in Bangladesh were aged over 60, representing 8 per cent of the country's total population.

“The 2013 National Policy on Older Persons and the Maintenance of Parents’ Act resulted from this fast-growing age group. I look forward to learning more about the implementation of the policy and the law,” she said.

The Independent Expert will assess areas of concern such as social security and protection, age discrimination and ageism, abuse and violence against older persons, their living conditions, including housing arrangements and access to adequate health services, and their meaningful participation in the labour force and in public and political space. She will also focus on older persons’ rights in specific contexts, including emergency situations related to climate change and forced displacement.

Mahler is visiting Bangladesh at the invitation of the Government, and will hold discussions in Dhaka, Rangpur, and Chattogram with government representatives, UN presences, civil society organisations working with older persons, academics and older persons.

The expert will hold a press conference at the end of her visit, on Thursday 17 November 2022 at 1.30 pm local time at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka, to share her preliminary observations. Access will be strictly limited to media and journalists.

She will present a full report of her country visit to the Human Rights Council in September 2023.

ENDS

Ms. Claudia Mahler (Austria) was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons in May 2020. She has been working for the German Institute for Human Rights as a senior researcher in the field of economic, social and cultural rights since 2010. She was also a visiting professor at the Alice Salomon Hochschule in 2020-2021. From 2001 to 2009, Ms. Mahler conducted research at the Human Rights Centre of the University of Potsdam where her main fields were in human rights education, minority rights and the law of asylum. In 2000, she received her doctoral degree and was appointed as Vice President of the Human Rights Commission for Tyrol and Vorarlberg.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

UN Human Rights, country page – Bangladesh