Time for a UN Convention on the rights of older persons – Discussion paper

In order to feed the discussions launched by the United Nations Open-ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWG) on the relevance a new international instrument to protect older persons’ rights, AGE has joined forces with a number of representatives of NGOs and experts to publish a paper building the case for an UN Convention on the rights of older persons.

The paper examines how the rights of older persons have been ignored and denied in many responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and explains how a convention that protects the rights of older persons everywhere would help take age discrimination seriously and, as a result, build societies that are fair and just for all.

Members of this informal group who have contributed to this paper are:

Bridget Sleap (HelpAge International), principal author, and co-authors Robin Allen (Cloisters Chambers, UK), Andrew Byrnes (Professor of Law, Faculty of Law and research associate, Australian Human Rights Institute and associate investigator, Ageing Futures Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia), Israel Issi Doron (University of Haifa and Law in the Service of the Elderly), Nena Georgantzi (AGE Platform Europe), and Bill Mitchell (Community Legal Centres Australia).

Download the discussion paper ‘Time for a UN Convention on the rights of older persons’