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Social Forum
3 October 2016; 16:30-17:15
Silvia Perel-Levin
Panel, Accessibility and non-discrimination: ‘Leaving no one behind’
Protecting the Rights of Older Persons:
Older persons worldwide experience discrimination and the violation of their human rights at family, community, institutional and societal levels. While not all older persons are persons with disabilities, the likelihood of acquiring a disability increases with age. Despite the fact that most international human rights treaties apply in principle to people of all ages, specific reference to older persons is rare.
The Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWG) for the purpose of strengthening the protection of the human rights of older personswas established by the General Assembly in 2010. In the six meetings to-date, the debatehas been divided between those who promote a new conventionon the rights of older persons and those who are againstit.This divisive line is fundamentally flawed. It builds on the assumption that we aim to create new rights for a separate category of the population.
Older persons are not a homogenous, separate group. Age alone does not define them. In fact, ageing applies to the whole population regardless of group or identity. Older persons do not expect more rights than anybody else. Human rights should apply to all throughout the life course. But in reality, upper-age limits prevent older persons from exercising their rights, whether it is employment, access to health and care services, training, housing or participation in decision-making. Age becomes the only basis for discrimination that is still accepted and enshrined in legislation and policies.
Ageism and structural abuse are the root cause of the specific challenges that older persons face and the main barriers to the realisation of their human rights. Laws and policies for older persons are different than those for younger persons with disabilities. Older persons often belong to a different administration than persons with disabilities, with different budgets and different eligibility criteria that determine the allocation of benefits, without proper coordination or no coordination at all between the two. Therefore older persons often lose some state disability benefits when they reach the age threshold of the country. Age limits for disability-benefits may prevent older persons from identifying themselves as persons with disabilities and seeking protection under the CRPD.
Those who acquire impairments and/or functional limitations for the first time inold age and thosewho grow old with a disability, all may face significant and similar challenges when they attain this age threshold. Older persons are seen as less deserving of support to maintain their autonomy and live independently in the community.
Ageist attitudes are behind inadequate pension schemes, the lack of access to preventive health care or rehabilitation services or to delayed, inadequate or undignified treatment. Abuse, including social isolation, disrespect for individual choices, deprivation of day-to-day decisions, of liberty, of privacy and neglect can be a reality for older persons both at home or in an institution. The abuse is tolerated as evidenced by lack of legislation, of regular monitoring, of adequate quality standards, unqualified/untrained caregivers, andprofit-making or austerity measures.
Member States should recognise the discrimination faced by older persons, systematically include them in consultations, tackle the social injustice they suffer and ensure an equal application of disability rights across the life course.
The CRPD Committee should focus on the intersection of old age and disability, including through a General Comment on the rights of older persons with disabilities.
While the CRPD can do a lot to improve the lives of older persons with disabilities, not all older persons have a disability and therefore the CRPD cannot respond to all instances of age-based discrimination.
The CRPD has been a source of inspiration for the movement for the rights of older persons and the achievements of the disability movement can only be strengthened with a convention on the rights of older persons. We look forward to working together to make sure that is the case.
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