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International Day of Older Persons
Workshop: From Rhetoric to Reality: Educating and Empowering for Implementation
By Denis Chikunov, Global Action on Aging
October 8, 2009
The Workshop started with Helen Hamlin’s(International Federation on Aging) presentation on how we can transform the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) into a resolution which could lead to a Convention. A Convention is a legally binding document which Member States –after they sign and ratify it- must follow. Helen Hamlin also mentioned the UN Principles on Older Persons of 1991 and suggested that be implemented in society. Ms. Hamlin called for political activism that engaged everyone’s participation.
Dr. Patricia Spadafora (Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Canada) explained that any political activism starts with preliminary research to understand the situation and what must be changed. From the research that she has done with her colleagues based on different sampling groups, she has found out that only 32% of people have heard of the United Nations Principles and only 4% followed them in practice. Also, only 4% of people knew about MIPAA, the 2002 Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing.. She also asked people to rate on the scale from 1 to 10 questions like: “How important are principles of independence for elders?” or “Do you think elder people have equal access to healthcare at your work place?” Answers to these questions allowed her group to gather information on what needs to be promoted and also gave her ideas of how to promote it.
Shamina de Gonzaga discussed results from this research, which she found very disappointing. She explained that in order to promote the UN principles in society, an activist leader needs to present UN principles to people in a very clear form, taking out “opaque” words, so that people can understand the main message and have no confusion about it. According to Ms. De Gonzaga, people need to understand that ageing is universal and everyone faces this challenge and opportunity at some point in life. This is the main reason why everyone should care and be concerned about older persons’ rights. Sharing experiences about aging and distributing the knowledge is a great way to raise awareness. It would make older people more visible in society.
During this session, the audience was split into 5 working groups. Each table was assigned to talk about one UN Principles which were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1991: independence, participation, care, self-fulfillment, and dignity. After the discussion, each table presented their ideas on how society can implement these principles.
The following proposals were made:
• Younger people could teach older persons how to use computers;
• Older people could get more education so that they can relate better to the younger generation
• Values in society must change
• The media and the educational systems should be more geared to respect older persons by teaching people how different generations should get along with each
other.
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