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"Integrating Older Persons in the 
UN Human Rights Program"

By Laura Reanda, International Human Rights Education Group

February 14, 2005

It may helpful to note at the outset that even though consideration of the situation of older persons takes place under the social development agenda, issues of human rights provide the necessary foundation for this debate. The World Assembly on Ageing, which was held in 2002, was preceded by a number of major conferences and summits that established important governmental commitments for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all. Since the World Conference on Human Rights held at Vienna in 1993, every major meeting has incorporated a human rights perspective and there are ongoing efforts to mainstream human rights throughout the various institutions of the UN system. This approach was reaffirmed in the Millennium Declaration, which will continue to provide guidance for the coming years. 

For its part, the World Assembly on Ageing included human rights in art. 5 of the Political Declaration, which reaffirms the commitment to "promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development"; to "eliminate all forms of discrimination, including age discrimination"; and "to eliminate all forms of neglect, abuse and violence". In art.9, the Declaration also commits governments "to protect and assist older persons in situations of armed conflict and foreign occupation."

The Political Declaration also contains a commitment to "effectively incorporating ageing within social and economic strategies, policies and action" and the Plan of Action emphasizes the necessity to mainstream ageing into frameworks for social and economic development and human rights. As part of the follow-up to the World Assembly, both the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council have adopted resolutions requesting the mainstreaming of ageing issues into the work of the UN system as a whole, thus including human rights.

In a broad sense, these mandates are inspired by a human rights ethic: namely, that a just and peaceful society can be achieved only if no-one is discriminated against or left behind, and if the human rights of everyone are respected in all circumstances. The institutional translation of these mandates, however, is not an easy process. As we have learned from the efforts to mainstream gender and human rights, mainstreaming is not a mechanistic exercise of just adding new projects to existing programs. It requires in the first place a rethinking of conceptual approaches to problems. To see the world from a human rights perspective or a gender perspective is not the same as seeing it from an economic or social development perspective, even though there are many points of intersection.

If we look for example at the issue of violence against women, we find that until the 1980s it was addressed primarily as a problem of social development. It was only after the 1993 Human Rights Conference and the 1995 Women's Conference introduced the 'gender' paradigm and declared that women's rights are human rights, that violence against women began to be seen also as a human rights violation and the different tools of the international human rights system were brought to bear on the problem.

A similar case could be made for the issue of elder abuse, which today is handled as a social problem; but what if it was seen also as a human rights violation? The focus on prevention and help for the victims would then expand to shine a spotlight on the perpetrators and on the State's obligation to protect all persons under its jurisdiction, including its vulnerable older citizens.  Addressing an issue in a human rights perspective not only raises the level of seriousness with which the problem is addressed, but also immediately brings into view issues of responsibility and accountability under the existing normative frameworks. 

This kind of re-thinking of established approaches has usually come not from governments but from NGOs, civil society organizations and individual academics and activists. This outside input has been quite effective at various levels within the human rights system.

Firstly, the treaty bodies: these are committees composed of independent experts who meet regularly to review performance by States parties to the major human rights conventions. Several of these experts come from activist backgrounds and are open to cooperation with NGOs, which is an important consideration because age is not included among the grounds for discrimination under most of these conventions, and specific action is required to ensure that their protections are extended to older persons.

Among the treaty bodies, CEDAW and CESCR have already decided to interpret the provisions of their respective conventions to include older persons. General Comment 6 on "The economic, social and cultural rights of older persons" adopted by CESCR in 1995 spells out these rights and the corresponding obligations of States parties under each article of the Covenant.[1]  CEDAW has revised its guidelines for State reports to include the gender dimension of the Madrid Plan of Action, and has used its dialogue with States parties to identify the various forms of discrimination faced by older women and to recommend action to improve their lives.[2] Concerned NGOs therefore already have an opening to submit information or 'shadow reports' on the situation of older persons in countries that are under review before these committees.

On the other hand, as far as I know, none of the other committees have yet taken comparable action. NGOs working on specific issues covered by these human rights treaties, however, could still provide information to the relevant committees and advocate for greater attention to the rights of older persons: for example, issues such as equality in political participation, which is covered by the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; or the double discrimination of age and race or ethnicity, which is relevant to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; are important for the implementation of the decisions of the World Assembly on Ageing. The most recent of these human rights instruments is the Migrant Workers Convention, which is the only one that specifically includes age in its non-discrimination provisions. NGOs concerned with the rights of older migrants should be aware of this convention and monitor the work of the relevant committee. 

The treaty bodies derive their mandate from the treaties themselves, which they can re-interpret in light of new issues, and are not subject to mandates given by intergovernmental bodies such as the global conferences. The other sectors of the human rights system, however, need specific mandates in order to take up a particular issue. The question then arises, are the existing mandates sufficiently clear in order to initiate action in support of the human rights of older persons? Or is additional NGO advocacy necessary? If so, where should it be targeted? 

As I mentioned earlier, the General Assembly and ECOSOC have adopted general decisions to mainstream older persons' issues throughout the UN system, and the Madrid Declaration and Plan of Action on Ageing have stressed the need for linkage with development and human rights frameworks. However, it seems that a specific mandate for mainstreaming older persons throughout the human rights machinery has not yet been given. The annual reports on follow-up to the World Assembly on Ageing submitted by the Secretary-General to the General Assembly contain a lot of interesting information on mainstreaming in various sectors of the UN system, but so far there is no mention of the human rights program. Since much of the information comes from focal points on ageing, interested NGOs should probably inquire whether such a focal point exists in the Office of the High Commissioner, and if not, press for the appointment of one. 

At its last session, the General Assembly in resolution 59/150 for the first time invited the functional commissions of ECOSOC  "to integrate the issues of population and individual ageing into their work n order to promote implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action." Since the Commission on Human Rights is the most prominent of these functional commissions, NGOs should expect to see some action on that front. A positive decision by the Commission would go a long way towards stimulating action by its subsidiary bodies.

The special procedures of the CHR are the second and possibly the largest sector of the UN human rights system and provide a mechanism for year-round engagement on human rights issues. They are experts appointed by the CHR Chairman, and have varying titles and mandates which usually include monitoring, advising, and reporting publicly on human rights situations either in specific countries (known as country mandates) or on major phenomena of human rights violations worldwide (known as thematic mandates). Activities of special procedures range from conducting studies to providing advice on technical cooperation to taking up complaints with the governments concerned. At present, there are some 15 country mandates and 26 thematic mandates. The experts mostly work independently of each other, although on occasion the CHR may give a mandate to several of them to cooperate on a particular issue. They also have a joint annual meeting at which they discuss matters of common interest. All of them receive information from NGOs and cooperate with NGOs in various ways; NGOs have also been invited to submit their concerns and suggestions to the annual meeting.

There are therefore vast opportunities for NGO input into the special procedures; but it might be quite a daunting task for an individual NGO to ascertain the relevance of each of these mandates for older persons, and to decide how best to target its efforts to achieve effective mainstreaming. In the case of gender mainstreaming, an expert seminar was convened by the Secretariat to think through the new paradigm and its applicability to various parts of the human rights system, and to develop guidelines. This was followed by the adoption of a joint action program between the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Another possible avenue to stimulate this kind of analysis and policy-making might be for interested NGOs to seek the appointment of a Special Rapporteur to do a study of mainstreaming, perhaps under the umbrella of the Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, an expert body that has traditionally served as a 'think tank' for the Commission.

The third and perhaps ultimately the most important area for action by NGOs concerned with the situation of older persons is at the local level. In situations of conflict and humanitarian emergencies, NGOs already on the ground are best placed to assess needs, identify shortcomings and vulnerabilities, and to help with relief measures. The information and analysis they can provide is invaluable for the work of human rights organs, and ways should be found to ensure that their input reaches the officials concerned, if necessary through the intermediary of larger organizations that are familiar with the international system and could serve as a 'transmission belt'.

Moreover, the 'bottom up' approach for implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action on Ageing opens important opportunities for civil society to participate in national policy development. Capacity-building and mainstreaming have been identified as the two essential facets of implementation. In a recent report on human rights reform following the Millennium Declaration, the Secretary-General stressed that "building strong human rights institutions at the country level is what in the long run will ensure that human rights are protected and advanced in a sustained manner. The emplacement or enhancement of a national protection system in each country, reflecting international human rights norms, should therefore be a principal objective of the Organization."[3]  The Secretary-General did not mention older persons, who were not specifically singled out in the Millennium Declaration. However, as human rights concerns are increasingly integrated into the work of UN country teams, concerned NGOs at the local level could, and should, advocate for the full inclusion of older persons' rights and needs in these emerging national protection systems as the building blocks of the desired 'society for all ages'.