The world is currently experiencing an unprecedented demographic revolution to an ageing population, and no regions are exempt. Globally, there are approximately 700 million persons aged 60 years old and over, and this figure will double by 2025. By 2050, older persons will constitute 20%of the global population—higher than it has ever been. In light of these projections, in 2013 the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council established a first-ever mandate of the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons.
The main objective of this mandate is to contribute to strengthening the promotion and protection of the human rights of older persons. Ageing affects populations in distinctly different ways, with key issues such as elder abuse, adequate care facilities, and access to quality health care. The mandate’s scope is sufficiently broad to encompass not only an assessment of the implementation of existing international instruments in relation to older persons—including the identification of both best practices and gaps worldwide—but also action towards raising awareness of the challenges faced by older persons in the enjoyment of their rights. More specifically, it also comprises an assessment of the human rights implications of the implementation of one of the main political documents dedicated to older persons, the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, endorsed 14 years earlier by the General Assembly.
To fulfil this mandate, I have chosen a comprehensive approach to ageing, presented in my first annual report in 2014. This integrated approach considers international legal and policy frameworks to understand the complexity and heterogeneity of ageing, identify the needs of older persons, raise awareness of the challenges they face, and analyse how their situation has been incorporated in policies, legislations, plans and programmes.
