Human Rights Day from the perspective of older persons

December 10th is Human Rights Day, and this year marks 20 years since the establishment of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. (UN OHCHR).

Here, in this timeline, we look at significant events and publications that focus particularly on human rights and the elderly, ranging from the 2002 Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, through to calls for the creation of a specific UN Convention on the elderly.

Demographic projections indicate that by 2050, nearly 80% of the world’s older population (aged 60+) will live in developing and emerging economies. With the MDGs not explicitly addressing the rights of the elderly as a specific vulnerable group, and with crosscutting issues around health, right to food, work, social protection, climate change, and humanitarian disasters all affecting the elderly, the World’s ageing population needs urgently to be represented on the development agenda as we head towards the post-2015 era.