UN approves plan of action to protect elderly  

By : AFP
Times of India, April 13, 2002

MADRID: A UN conference on ageing adopted a plan of action on Friday to tackle the growing problems of poverty and isolation facing a global population of over-60s that is projected to more than triple by 2050.

The plan, presented at the close of the UN's Second World Assembly on Ageing, called for member states to integrate ageing issues into their development and anti-poverty policies as well as to adopt greater flexibility on retirement.

Moreover, it demanded that countries work to increase cross-generation cooperation in order to maintain social cohesion in the face of a population explosion of people over 60 -- expected to grow from about 600 million today to more than two billion in 2050.

However, the conference rejected a demand presented by non-government organisations on Wednesday that it create a body dealing with issues of ageing similar to that performed by UNICEF in the field of education and youth policy.

The UN "supports a more effective, multi-disciplinary and realistic policy in placing our energy in existing institutions at the national level rather than creating another centralised institution," UN spokesman Paul Hauffel told AFP.

Hauffel said the plan of action should be seen within the context of an overall social policy over a period of decades, "in order to respond to needs in the fields of health, social security and education".

Other issues discussed in the action plan included the protection of the elderly in the current conflict in the Middle East as well as abuse against old people and support for their wider integration into society.

The Madrid conference, which brought together representatives from 160 countries, is the second UN gathering on ageing.