Globally, the demographic shift is changing at a faster rate. According to the World Health Organization, the number of people aged 60 or older is expected to rise to 2.1 billion in 2050. As life expectancy increases and fertility declines, the population structure in many countries has shifted to an inverted population pyramid. Despite the global demographic trend, many countries are not fully ready to confront this aging phenomenon. Due to the lack of governmental effort in building age-friendly environments and infrastructures, older adults are negatively influenced in both direct and indirect ways.
The United Nations defines a person who is aged over 60 as an older person. The United Nations Principles for Older Persons, a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1991 which aims to ensure the independence, participation, care, self-fulfilment, and dignity of older persons, states that “older [people] should remain integrated in society, participate actively in the formulation and implementation of policies that directly affect their well-being and share their knowledge and skills with younger generations.” The UN has recognized the need for protection of older people’s rights. On 20 December 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that calls for strengthening the international protection regime for older adults. However, there is still no international treaty compelling states to protect these rights. As population ageing is a global phenomenon, the creation of a United Nations Convention for the Rights of Older Persons is necessary to build inclusive and sustainable societies that, per the promise of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, leave no one behind.
In theory, the existing human rights system should help to protect the rights of older people across the world. Everyone regardless of their age is protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rigths and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. However, there is an implementation gap in practice, meaning that the UN Member States rarely make concrete commitments to protecting the rights of the elderly. Since there is no systematic and comprehensive UN Convention for the rights of older people, many elders are at risk of a diverse range of abuses today including physical, financial, and emotional abuses. The consequences are severe enough to make recovery difficult. The victims are more likely to experience serious physical injuries and mental health problems such as depression. If the protection continues to be inadequate at the institutional level, World Health Organization estimates that the number of victims of abuse of older people is expected to grow to 320 million by 2050. Therefore, the necessity of hard law in keeping the elders from victimizing is urgent.
Due to increased globalisation, the feeling of isolation of older people has been exacerbated. One of the primary emerging issues that elders face is digital exclusion. The constant, fast-paced societal changes related to an increased dependency on online services has made it difficult for older people to adjust to these technological advancements. In Spain, for example, an old man named Carlos San Juan run a two-month campaign that called for accessible banking services for older people. More than 600,000 people empathized with him, by signing his petition to fight against the financial exclusion of elders. The issue of digital exclusion has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. In South Korea, for example, the use of automated kiosks increased during the pandemic as a means of reducing social contact. However, due to lower levels of digital literacy, many South Korean senior citizens reported feeling alienated and left behind by this rapid transformation, and reduced their journeys out of the home for fear of not knowing how to navigate the unfamiliar technology. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has played a key role in making ageism more prevalent within society. As older people are more vulnerable to the deadly disease, there has been an increase in ageist comments. Dr. Brad A. Meisner, an Associate Professor in York University’s School of Kinesiology and Health Science, points out how social media has become a tool to discriminate against older adults. To be specific, COVID-19 has been referred to as the “Boomer Remover” which was a trending hashtag on Twitter in March 2020. It is used to imply that COVID-19 is addressing overpopulation by targeting the baby boomers and decreasing the burden of health care and tax systems caused by older adults.
Due to the pandemic crisis, however, the need for a legally binding UN treaty on the rights of older people is beginning to garner international attention. In a 2022 report from the OHCHR, it points out that “the current international framework provides fragmented and inconsistent coverage of the human rights of older persons in law and practice and that there is a need to move expeditiously towards developing and adopting a coherent, comprehensive and integrated human rights framework on older persons.” Yet, no action is currently being taken.
To create a systematic and comprehensive UN Convention for the rights of older persons, the UN must take an intersectional approach. Here, intersectionality refers to analysing by taking consideration of race, gender, age, and class into account. Until recently, many international human rights instruments have failed to recognize intersecting forms of discrimination, including the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. To successfully integrate the rights of older persons at the UN, there must not be institutional neglect in addressing the rights of minority elders as well.
The UN Convention must possess the property of inclusion by understanding diversity. Specifically, the voices of LGBTQ seniors and older people with disability deserve equal protection because these minorities are experiencing compounded inequalities that straight white, old males or females are not facing. If different forms of discrimination are seen without an intersectional lens, it will fail to achieve the UN’s stated goal of leaving no one behind. Therefore, providing a legally binding UN Convention for the Rights of the Older Persons that embraces inclusiveness and intersectionality is crucial to protect the dignity and rights of all older people.
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