On 10 December, International Human Rights Day, AGE published a short document explaining what a rights-based approach to ageing is.
Human rights must be at the heart of policy work on ageing at EU, national and international levels, as mentioned in the recent Council Conclusions put forward by the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2020 on ‘Human rights, participation and well-being of older persons in the era of digitalisation” (read our press release). But how do we apply this approach in practice ?
During the joint German Presidency-AGE-BAGSO event, the EU Director of the Fundamental Rights Agency outlined his vision of a rights-based approach to ageing and older people. This includes the following four elements, which are explained in our paper.
- Embracing all human rights
- Respecting the principle of equality and non-discrimination
- Working with older people
- Monitoring, measuring and assessing
> Read the full guidelines here
The 2018 report of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) which called for moving away from thinking about old age in terms of ‘deficits’ that create ‘needs’, towards a ‘rights-based’ approach to ageing, also provides some further explanation of the added value and implications of this rights model. AGE plans to work with its members to provide more concrete examples of how this approach can be applied in EU policy and practice in 2021.
For more information you can contact Nena Georgantzi, Policy Coordinator on Human Rights & Non-Discrimination: nena.georgantzi@age-platform.eu
