EGYPT

Statement

by

H.E. Mrs. Fayza Aboulnaga

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs

at the

Second World Assembly on Ageing

Madrid, Spain, 8th-12th April 2002

Mr. Chairman

I would like at the outset to congratulate you on chairing the Second International Assembly for Ageing and to express my thanks and gratitude for the Government of Spain for hosting this important forum that coincides with the 20th anniversary of the First International Assembly for Ageing that was held in Vienna in 1982. Egypt hopes that this conference will produce an international Working strategy that strive to establish an equilibrium between the social, cultural, economic and demographic facts prevalent in the 21St Century through fulfilling the needs of the Ageing in all parts of the Globe. We shall endeavor to translate this international strategy to a clear and practical plan of action that identify the steps that we all have to take - on the national, regional and international levels - to improve the conditions of the Ageing in all states of the world and to consolidate their rights and to preserve their dignity, especially in the developing countries.

Mr. Chairman

The convening of the Second Assembly for Ageing coincides with the increase in the phenomenon of Ageing of the population, which became an international and unprecedented phenomenon in the history of our human society... for according to the reports of the demographic division of the United Nations, the number of the old will surpass the number of the youth, for the first time in history, by the year 2050, a fact that will undoubtedly affect all countries of the world regardless of its level of development, and will also affect all classes of the society, and spheres of life whether economical, social and political.

In this regard, I would like to highlight the early interest that Egypt has shown to the Ageing, an interest that starts since the sixth decade of the previous century, with the enactment of the law that provides pensions and extraordinary provisions for the Ageing, and the subsequent laws and Ministerial decrees as well as executive rules regarding social pensions and retirement that covers all citizens inside and outside Egypt.
The philosophy of caring for the Ageing in Egypt is built on the basis of providing an early and comprehensive pension to all those who have reached working age through an umbrella of pension laws that reaches to protect all those who have reached the age of retirement. The Egyptian system of caring adopted varied systems and ways to ensure the achievement of this goal, such as the reduction the period necessary to be eligible for receiving retirement pension, providing for a minimum limit for retirement, adding some increases for pensions, and ensuring a proper pension in relation to wages. As for the caring of citizens after reaching the age of retirement, several measures have been adopted to facilitate the periodic disbursement of pensions and to provide for social care for. the pensioners, and to work on increasing pensions to face the increase in the cost of living.

Mr. Chairman

Egypt strives to provide comprehensive care for the Ageing whether on the level of official institutions, or through supporting voluntary action of non governmental organizations and to activate the role of the family in caring for the Ageing. Indeed it is not an exaggeration to say that the concept of the Egyptian society to caring of the Ageing also as a basic Islamic teaching is to the extent that the majority families look forward to caring for their parents regardless of their commitments and they refuse their transfer to care centers for the Ageing.

The significance of the need for the Ageing in Egypt is not limited to ensuring their material needs, but it transcends them to providing for the psychological care and to ensure that they feel secure and to feel the appreciation of the society, and to provide them with the opportunity for participation and decision making and to contribute in the revival and development of the society.

The recent years witnessed an increase in the number of the citizens over the age of sixty years old, in the year 2000, the percentage of the Ageing reached 6.3°/a of the total number of the population, and it is expected that this percentage reach 10.75% in 2025. The Government of Egypt placed on the top of its priorities a policy that aim at crystallizing policies and programs that aim at providing medical services to this category as it noted the increase in the number of the Ageing who suffer a higher percentage of chronically disease and disability and the deterioration on the standard of living. It is important here to assure that the Egyptian concept in this regard can be summarized in providing medical and comprehensive preventive care to all the categories of the Ageing on equal footing with an appropriate cost that suits all social classes for the Egyptian policy in this regard is based on the following:
Improving the mental overall medical conditions for the Ageing and increases their standard of living.
Increase the awareness amongst the Ageing and in the society of their role and their independence.
Decreasing the percentage of disability and accidents among the Ageing and decreasing the percentages of unwarranted mortality.

Mr. Chairman

Egypt does hope that this Assembly succeeds in executing an assessment of the situation of the Ageing not only on the national and regional levels, but also on the international level through the elaboration of a program of work that deals with ways of improving the situation of the Ageing in all spheres according o the situations and needs of the different countries of the world and according to its economic, social and cultural characteristics.

Egypt does emphasize the importance of international cooperation to improve the situation of the Ageing, especially in light of the changes the occurred in the international economy the ramifications of which reflected on the countries of South, and in particular the poorer categories in these states included among which is the category of the Ageing. Accordingly the international community should bear its responsibility in supporting the developing countries to strengthen and consolidate development and to eradicate poverty through the adoption of several important steps including debt rescheduling, providing for the ability to reach markets and to facilitate the flow, of foreign investments and to provide the necessary levels of official development aid to the developing countries.

Mr. Chairman

The dangerous and painful repercussions in the occupied Palestinian territories and the continuos brutal Israeli aggression and the serious and massive violations of the human rights of the Palestinians, did not allow for the sanctity of a child, or a woman or an aged person... for the Israeli government denied them all of the most simple needs of living, and wasted their dignity and the dignity of the human being anywhere through a complete and terrible siege that bleeds the hearts, disgusts the souls, and shames humanity. It destroys , in a rude affront, all principles of international laws and customs. And all this is the result of the Israeli occupation of Palestine for over half a century. Today the entire Palestinian People are victim of the brutal aggression that shames all values and principles of humanity and the slogans of the free world. It may bring to the minds of a number of us who participated or witnessed the First World Assembly which it coincided with the massacres of Sabra and Shatilla in 1982, and today and twenty years later, the Second World Assembly convenes and coincides with the ongoing massacres in Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus and Ramallah still and again the hands of the Israeli occupier. The genocide attempts, the subjugation and the daily agony that the aged Palestinian incur without regard to their age, a degradation that sweeps away their dignity as they are subjected to murder, violence and humiliation as shown live on television screens... isn't it time Mr. Chairman to put an end to the sufferings and the tragedy of an entire people where its youth and its aged suffer the most extreme inhumane circumstances .... Isn't it time that the International community - which is so proud of the progress it achieved in the third millenium- shoulder its responsibilities and protect a defenseless people from crimes that shocks humanity ....and to stand besides their edlerly who have spent most of their lives under the pressure of a tyrannical occupation that does not respect neither international laws nor conventions even those that its authorities have signed and committed itself. As we are assembled here today to seek ways of protecting the aged and consolidating their rights and preserving their dignity, this Assembly should condemn what the aged Palestinians incur by the Israeli army in front of the whole world, and to demand the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops and to put an end to the Israeli occupation of Arab land as the ultimate and only way of achieving just and comprehensive peace as well as security for all the peoples of the region. Finally this assembly should demand that Israel respond to the hand of peace that all Arab States extended in Beirut last March so that our presence in Madrid -this city that witnessed the convening in 1991 of the Madrid Peace Conference which established the terms of reference in the Middle East land for Peace, as the strongest incentive to safeguard these principles by adopting the appropriate positions.

Thank You Mr. Chairman