Better timing in 2012
Since its creation in December 2010,
the UN's Open Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWG) has met in three working
sessions: two in 2011 and one in 2012. The second session in
2011 coincided with the first day of the Muslim fast, Ramadan, and reduced
many Muslim member states' participation, particularly from Africa and the
Middle East. In its most recent session in August 2011, few Asian member states
participated. Consequently, governments, experts and NGOs discussed the human
rights of older people who were absent from the table due to their religious
observances. Instead, governments whose
social security and protection policies are far more developed dominated the
presentations. Fortunately, in the recent 2012 session, some large international
NGO’s and the UN Secretariat encouraged NGOs from poor countries to
attend. We heard Member States such as
Malaysia, Togo, Sudan, Ghana and Burkina Faso on behalf of the African Union
speak out at the four day discussions. The broadened participation of Member
States significantly improved the debate and revealed a wide variety of
perspectives on elder rights.
Moderator, Maarit Kohonen at the OEWG
Photo credit: Shuang Wang
Content of the panels
Day 1 - August 21
The first day of the third working
session, August 21, opened with election of officers, adoption of the agenda
and participation of NGOs. After the opening session and extending for two and
half days, Member states and civil society organizations discussed the existing
international framework on the human rights of older persons and identified existing
gaps at the international level. The August 21 afternoon featured
three expert presentations on age discrimination: Louise
Richardson, Vice-President of AGE Platform Europe; Susan Ryan, The Honorable
Age Discrimination Commissioner of Australia and Alejandro Morlachetti,
Professor of Law in Argentina. Please click here to read
panelists' biographies
Bethany Brown, Policy Director of
HelpAge USA summarized highlights of the panel. "Many examples of
discrimination involved discrimination in employment, from redundancies, to
national policies for early retirements to promote a younger workforce, to
hiring practices and advertisements. Discrimination in all sectors of life, not
just employment, was also discussed: harassment, goods and services, including
health insurance, travel insurance, mortgages and bank loans.
The insidious nature of age
discrimination was underscored. Additionally, the panelists raised the point
that if people do not realize they are being discriminated against, they will
not seek justice.
With discrimination prohibitions in
international law lacking an explicit reference to old age discrimination,
“other status,” is the catchall phrase under with any existing instrument. The
panelists outlined problems with the existing system succinctly. In its current
state, the international human rights system cannot: 1. Clarify state
responsibilities to prevent age discrimination; or 2. Establish suspect classes
with higher scrutiny; or 3. Reaffirm the equality of older people. Prohibitions
of discrimination based in the catchall other
status make them discretionary rules."
As a Turkish citizen, Australia's
anti-discrimination acts on race, sex, disability and age impressed me. Many
member states took the floor to describe their national aging policies but very
few of these policies appeared sufficiently comprehensive to inspire imitation.
Based on Susan Ryan's presentation, I had the feeling that policies were
actually working in Australia. She said that Australia has a free and
confidential complaint commission, not a court, where older people can file
complaints. If older people are not able to do so, their families, neighbors,
caregivers or simply a member of the community can do it. Despite its recent
creation in 2011, the commission resolved more than 50 percent of the cases satisfactorily.
Duygu Basaran, Global Action on Aging, addressing a question to the panelists
Photo credit: Shuang Wang
Day 2 - August 22
The second day started with an
expert panel on autonomy, independent living and healthcare. Panelists
were Amanda McRae, Disability Rights Researcher from Human Rights Watch; Nena
Georganzi, Legal and Research Officer from AGE Platform Europe; Horst Krumbach,
Nursing Home Administrator from Germany. Please click here to read
panelists' biographies.
Forced institutionalization, lack of
support at home and healthcare limitations block older people who wish to
continue living at home. Amanda McRae discussed the importance of palliative
care and how it can improve the quality of life of those with incurable
diseases. The World Health Organization WHO defines palliative care as "an approach that improves the quality of life of
patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening
illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early
identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other
problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual." HelpAge USA summarized the session:
"The right to
health is subject to progressive realization, but access to essential medicines
is part of the minimum core content of the right to health. Fourteen essential
medicines on the WHO’s essential medicines list are palliative care medicines,
she noted. In spite of this, she gave examples of unnecessary government
regulation of these essential medicines which impede the provision of essential
medicines for treatment of pain.
An aging expert from
Europe focused on autonomy, forced institutionalization, and discrimination in
healthcare delivery. Home care, she emphasized, despite being the preference of
many older people, is not protected by law. Violence and abuse can take place
in institutional settings, or in the home. Older people may face increased risk
to their right to self-determination and dignity in institutions. Their risk of
forced institutionalization may also increase where family members seek to have
them institutionalized for financial reasons.
In Europe, she reported,
supports for home care are lacking. Home care is often maintained by
women over 55 in the “sandwich generation” taking on multiple generations of
caregiving responsibility, which adds a dimension of gender discrimination to
the issue of home care. While the CRPD might apply to older people with
disabilities, the attribution of older people’s disabilities as the
inevitability of “old age” by society and individuals alike, limits its equal
protection.
In the discussion, it
was noted that the misuse of neuroleptics (anti-psychotic medications) as
chemical restraints are a risk of institutionalization, particularly for older
women. Forced institutionalization was underscored as an area of international
law with provisions for persons with disabilities, but without equal
protections for older people. Further, international law articulates standards
of training for those with custody of prisoners (CRPD, CAT), as well as a
variety of professionals and staff working with people with disabilities."
I learned that despite a
“rights charter” in Europe, older citizens face inconsistent enforcement of their
right to healthcare. Although While the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
European Union guarantees rights of all people, at the national level, policies
differ. For example, in Belgium, free breast cancer scan is available to women
aged between 60 and 69 years old, stated Nena Georgantzi from AGE Platform
Europe. Such disparity in one of the world’s wealthiest countires, points to
the need for strict enforcement of any future convention aimed at elders. A German NGO showed a five minute video of
his work to engage children with nursing home residents in mutual activities. While
appealing, this activity seems unlikely to change basic issues facing older
persons worldwide, particularly in poor countries.
The afternoon session
hosted experts to address life in dignity, social security and access
to resources: Anne-Meette Kjaer Hesselager, Head of Section, Law and
International, Danish Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration;
Alejandro Morlachetti, Professor of Law from Argentina and Najat
Mekkaoui, Member at the National Council of Human Rights of Morocco, in
charge of social protection for older people. Please click here to read
panelists' biographies.
In this panel presentation,
member states' interests differed widely, revealing how can be different and
how difficult it may be to reach a consensus at international level about protecting
older people's dignity. We have a long way to go. For example, Denmark's current
government is worried about funding older people’s needs. Progress policies now
on the book face many threats due to a reduced population in the paid workforce. Its representative claimed that there are too
few in the workforce to support the benefts of older citizens. The Head of
Section of the Danish Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration said that her grandmother,
who is 82 years old, has received a pension since she was 53 years old and
lives in a nursing home with a view of Sweden. Denmark now is trying to balance
its budget so that it does not have to abandon
its welfare assistance for older people. Followng Ms. Kjaer Jesselager's presentation,
we heard Najat Mekkaoui from Morocco say that only 16 percent of older people
in her country receive a monthly pension; 83 percent of its older population
is illiterate. These presentations spelled out the some of the difficulties
that will exist in the negotiation process between rich and poor countries;
between old and young in a society; between developed and developing nations. But
clearly many NGOs believe that a common standard enforced by a human rights
convention could help reduce many of the inequities that many people face
simply due to their advanced age.
Day 3 - August 23
The third day of the
working session continued with presentations on abuse and
violence of older people. Nena Georganzi, Legal and Research
Officer from AGE Platform Europe; K.R. Gangadharan from International
Federation on Ageing in India; Claudia Martin, Co-Director of the Academy
on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and Bem Angwe, Executive
Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria made up the panel.
Please click here to read
panelists' biographies.
Most elder abuse remains
unreported. Also, no legal definition of elder abuse is currently accepted.
Nena Georgantzi stated that the Toronto Declaration of Elder Abuse is based on
a trust relationship. Yet, she added that under-reporting is due to lack of
confidence. Older people hesitate to report abuse, because they are usually
bound to live with their perpetrators. Dr. Gangadharan from India
underlined the fact that having money does not guarantee an abuse-free life. He
said that poor and rich older people can be subject to abuse and violence; he
showed some disturbing photos of older people neglected in Indian hospitals.
Dr. Gangadharan said that poverty, illiteracy and rural feminization
exacerbate elder abuse. Claudia Martin focused on the unclear character of
multiple legally binding documents on elder abuse.
Helpage summarized the
morning session: "There is no reference to many of these types of crime
in international law, or indeed across the board in national laws. Many
national laws relating to violence and abuse are limited to domestic violence with
a focus on spousal abuse. And existing international definitions of violence
and abuse are too narrow to capture much of the violence and abuse older people
encounter from communities and strangers. In the dialogue, many Member
States see this as an immediate problem, with the need for urgent action.
States have a positive obligation to protect their citizens, but without
clearer standards, they cannot meet this obligation."
Access to justice was the theme of the afternoon session.
Panelists included Professor Claudia Martin, from the American University
School of Law and Charles Sabatino, Director of American Bar Association
Commission on Law and Aging. Please click here to read
panelists' biographies.
Claudia Martin
highlighted some gaps in the justice system such as legal capacity and
guardianship rights, lack of a free form of consent in the case of long term
care, compulsory institutionalization, and detention of older people (prisons
and death penalty). Martin also underscored that access to justice should
include prevention not only access. Charles Sabatino listed three key possible
remedies: promote accessibility, ensure fairness and increase efficiency of
the juridical system. There are 39 states in the United States of
America that have created certificate programs to provide experience and
expertise on elder law for other states. According to Sabatino, elder law
should be based on three goals: autonomy, dignity and quality of life. Charles
Sabatino presented a chart showing the ideal system. (You can read all the
panelists' presentations by clicking here.) For example, in the
US, there is one legal aide professional for every 6,000 poor elders; whereas
there is one private aide for 429 private clients. Statistics reveal that there
are 1,500,000 older people under guardianship in the US, but Sabatino said that
the informal number is close to 3,000 000. The number of prisoners aged 65 or
older increased by 63 percent between 2007 and 2010; whereas other groups increased
by only 1 percent, a startling number.
A view of the NGOs listening to the panel
Photo credit: Duygu Basaran
Day 4 - August 24
The closing session featured
a lineup of Member States reading their closing statements: Burkina Faso
on behalf of the African Union, the European Union, Brasil, Venezuela,
Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina, Uruguay, Netherlands, US, Japan, Albania,
Chile, El Salvador, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, China and a
considerable number of NGOs including Global Action on Aging, Age UK, IFA,
HelpAge International, New Future Foundation, and INPEA expressed their
research and views about the Third working session and what they expect from
the next session.
Duygu Basaran Sahin
Global Action on Aging
