Alex RKThe thirteenth session of the UN Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing for the purpose of strengthening the protection of the human rights of older persons is being held between 3 and 6 April 2023 in New York. The working group was established by the General Assembly by resolution 65/182 on 21 December 2010. The working group is considering the existing international framework of the human rights of older persons and identifying possible gaps and how best to address them, including by considering, as appropriate, the feasibility of further instruments and measures.
The question of whether there should be a new Convention akin to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is one about which opinions vary. But it is important to highlight whilst the working group continues its work that there are many actions which can be taken already within existing frameworks. Some of them in the cross-border context were highlighted in 2021 in the joint statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Gerard Quinn, and the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, Claudia Mahler, entitled Toward Greater Coherence of International Law: Reflections on the Hague Convention (2000) on the International Protection of Adults. That statement, accompanying a report I co-wrote, can be found here.
