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October 1, 2010
Dear Members of the
Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women
Adoption of the draft
General recommendation No. 27 on older women and protection of their human
rights
As
organizations concerned with the elimination of discrimination against
women throughout their lives, including in old age, we applaud and support
the work of the Committee on age and gender-based discrimination.
The introduction of systematically asking States parties to report on how
they are implementing the Convention in relation to older women is a major
step towards improved understanding of multiple discrimination, stronger
protection of older women’s rights and improved disaggregated data
collection and analysis.
The General recommendation on older women and protection of their human
rights will be the most comprehensive interpretation of human rights and
State parties’ obligations as they apply in the context of ageing and we
urge the Committee to adopt it during the 47th Session in
Geneva in October 2010.
The timing is critical.
There is a growing recognition of, and attention to, the rights of older
women and men. Momentum towards a regional human rights instrument has
been gathering in Latin America and the Caribbean since the 2007 Brasilia
Declaration committed States to promoting older people’s rights. At an
international level, the 2010 report of the Secretary General to the 65th
General Assembly (A/65/157, 21 July 2010) recognizes the limited enjoyment
rights, significant levels of abuse and neglect, persistent ageist
stereotypes and exclusion that older women and men continue to experience.
2010 has also seen the creation of UN Women, the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial
Review address commitments and goals on gender equality, the 15 year
review of implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for
Action, the 10 year review of the Millennium Development Goals and the 10
year anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325.
The absence of attention within these review processes to the
discrimination experienced by older women has been alarming.
The impact of both gender inequality across the life course, as
well as the feminization of ageing, perpetuates the invisibility of older
women.
The adoption of the General recommendation would be a timely and powerful
signal to States parties to the Convention, UN Member States, UN Women and
to the international community that discrimination based on age and sex is
both morally and legally unacceptable and needs to be addressed across a
range of policy mechanisms.
We,
therefore, urge Committee Members to adopt the General recommendation at
the 47th Session.
Signed,
(In alphabetical order).
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