Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons

Older persons are entitled to the same human rights as everyone else. Yet older people experience a number of challenges when it comes to the full realization and enjoyment of their human rights. Older persons face multiple forms of discrimination and inequalities, including within health and care settings, in employment and in accessing services. They also experience different forms of violence, abuse, neglect and isolation as well as high rates of poverty. Older persons are the most heterogeneous demographic group, and intersectional factors often compound vulnerabilities to human rights violations. This is the case, for example, for older women, persons with disabilities, persons of African descent, and individuals belonging to indigenous peoples, among other groups.

Learn more the human rights of older persons.

About the mandate

On 27 September 2013, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 24/20, establishing the mandate of the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons. It was most recently renewed by resolution 51/4 in 2022. 

This mandate was created to:

• Assess the implementation of national, regional and international standards relevant to the rights of older persons;
• Identify, exchange and promote best practices relating to the promotion and protection of these rights;
• Report on developments, challenges and protection gaps in the realization of the rights of older persons, and to make related recommendations;
• Annually report to the Human Rights Council and to the General Assembly in this regard.

Read more about the history of the mandate and its working methods.

Current mandate holder

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 a senior researcher in the field of economic, social and cultural rights at the German Institute for Human Rights since 2010. Over the last twenty years, she has also worked as a lecturer in the field of human rights law in different academic institutions in Germany and Austria.

Read Ms. Claudia Mahler’s full biography.

Former Independent Expert

Ms. Rosa Kornfeld-Matte
(Chile), May 2014- May 2020