At an international conference on the rights of older persons in Vienna on 1st December, Minister Malijevac expressed Slovakia’s support of a new UN Convention on the rights of older persons. In doing so, Slovakia has joined Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Malta, who have already supported in the past the need for a new UN convention to ensure the equal enjoyment of human rights in old age.
‘There is a need to adopt a new specialized international legal instrument for the promotion and protection of human rights and, in particular, the dignity of the elderly, ensuring the full exercise of the civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights of the elderly - the specialized Convention on the Rights of the Elderly’.
This statement is part of Slovakia’s input to the questionnaire of the two cofacilitators appointed by the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing. This is an important and timely development as we expect the two cofacilitators to deliver their recommendations to the next session of the UN Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing with regard to gaps in the protection of the rights of older persons and how to best address them.
AGE and several of our members have also replied to the consultation of the cofacilitators agreeing that a binding UN convention on the rights of older persons is the best way to address the limitations, deficiencies and gaps in the international human rights framework to the benefit of all older persons around the world. We and several expert studies have provided ample evidence that the current international framework has failed to extend to older persons the same human rights safeguards that everyone else in society has. Existing human rights norms and procedures and their conceptual and operational limitations have resulted in an overall failure to provide adequate recognition and protection of the human rights of older persons at the international level and more limited legal protection compared to other groups.
We hope that ongoing deliberations at EU and UN level will reflect these findings and acknowledge that a new UN convention is long overdue.
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