Fighting for rights

We promote the rights of older people and we press for change both with and for them, so people in later life can make their voice heard and challenge discrimination.

UN Convention on the Rights of Older People

People in later life have the same rights as everyone else. We are all born equal and this does not change as we grow older. Even so, older people's rights are mostly invisible under international law.

Despite the existence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there is no explicit recognition of older people under the international human rights laws that legally oblige governments to realise the rights of all people. Commitments to the rights of older people exist, such as with the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA). However, they are not legally binding and therefore only impose a moral obligation on governments to implement them.

A UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons would clarify, make visible and firmly root older people's rights under international law. With a Convention, governments can have an explicit legal framework, guidance and support that would help them to meet the needs of their citizens as they grow older. It is also an effective tool to help civil society to strengthen accountability and dialogue with government at a national level.

We are, therefore, advocating a Convention on the Rights of Older Persons to help strengthen the rights of older people and helped establish the
Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People to achieve this. We are working with a number of like-minded NGOs, and support for a Convention appears to be gaining momentum. A few governments and an increasing number of individual policy makers, politicians and senior civil servants have already endorsed the idea.

Seventy-two year old Phad Panyarat (above) in Thailand says she joined her local OPA because 'I feel lonely at home on my own. I decided to join the Club because I am an older person.  I felt very stressed. I had a lot of problems. I did not know who to share my woes with. But now I have met other older people with similar problems and we can discuss our problems and our stress levels are reduced and we all feel much better.

Being a member of the OPA has brought me knowledge. For example, I had never done cotton weaving before but I learnt how to do it at the Club. I had never used a loom before either so the first time I tried it, I was quite afraid. But now I have been taught how to use it and I have found that I am actually quite good at it. You’re never too old to learn!

[Without the OPA] I would not know who to talk with or how to earn money. Now I can get money for temple donations. If I don’t have enough money to live on, I can go to the Chair and ask for a loan. If it’s just a small amount of money, it might be just a gift, but if it’s a bigger amount, then it would be a loan and I would pay it back once my pension came through. I’d be miserable if the OPA were not here. My life would be awful.'