24 April 2024
Welcome to the thirteenth session of the course on International Human Rights. Today we are going to look at progress (or lack of it) to define a convention on the rights of older persons.
The issue of aging at the United Nations became a major focus in 1982, when the Vienna International Plan of Action on Aging was adopted by the World Assembly on Aging held in Vienna, Austria from 26 July to 6 August 1982. This was at least partially a result of the work of the Division for Social Development, with the support of non-governmental organizations. The main focus of the Plan was on issues having a component for aging persons, but it did note that there was a human rights dimension, as expressed in preambular paragraph 1 that the countries gathered in the World Assembly on Aging "1. Do solemnly reaffirm their belief that the fundamental and inalienable rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights apply fully and undiminishedly to the aging."
Twenty years later, there was a second World Assembly which met in Madrid and adopted the Madrid Plan of Action on Aging. This also made mention of the need for human rights of aging persons. In preparation for this, I did a study of aging and the end of life for a medical journal that was published in 2003.
There were annual reports on implementation, but in 2010 the General Assembly decided, in its resolution 67/139, to work Towards a comprehensive and integral international legal instrument to promote and protect the rights and dignity of older persons. To negotiate this, the Assembly established the the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing for the purpose of strengthening the protection of the human rights of older persons. The Working Group has had nine sessions and the fourteenth is taking place in New York in May. The process of elaborating the instrument has been slow, with each session taking on a group of issues that might be incorporated into the instrument. The report of the thirteenth session, held in 2023, shows some of the progress. This led to the adoption of resolution 78/177 on Follow-up to the Second World Assembly on Ageing, which contains considerable agreement on issues, but does not yet set the basis for a convention.