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Overview
Global Action on Aging
advocates at the United Nations (UN) in New York to build a better
society for older people across the globe. Older persons’ numbers are
increasing rapidly. One out of every ten persons is now 60 years or above;
by 2050, one out of five will be 60 years or older. UN Member States
correctly see this growth among the elderly as a tremendous economic and
social challenge for their countries and the world. At the same time,
governments agree with Global Action on Aging that the world’s elderly
offer great talent and energy to their nations and our world.
In April 2002, delegates of 160 governments, intergovernmental institutions
and NGOs came together at the United Nations Second
World Assembly on Ageing in Madrid, Spain, in order to revise the 1982
Vienna Plan on Ageing which had established a global long-term
strategy for the aging population.
The 2002 Assembly’s outcome document, the Madrid
International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) , commits governments
to integrate the rights and needs of older persons into national, as well as
international, economic and social development policies.
However, this MIPAA document is non-binding and UN Member States may choose
to implement the Plan or not. Many millions of vulnerable old people, in
both the developed and developing world, still experience abuse, poverty and
social exclusion today. The rights of older people need to be better defined
and protected. Global Action on Aging believes that an Aging Human Rights
Convention (or Treaty), if adopted, promises a better world for older
persons.
This Aging Watch section monitors reports and decisions of the UN system,
with regard to the follow-up of MIPAA and the process toward the adoption of
a UN Convention protecting the rights of older persons.
To read some background documents on aging at the United Nations,
click here.
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Newest Updates
World: Joint NGO Statement to the 48th UN Commission for Social Development (December 2009)
To give a voice to civil society at the 48th UN Commission for Social Development, which will take place next February, Global Action on Aging, along with other NGOs, agreed on a joint statement. On Human Rights Day, December 10, 2009, this statement called for strengthening the rights of older persons worldwide. The NGOs underline the fact that older people cannot access their human rights. They recommend the adoption of a global human rights instrument to assure such rights.
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World: Report of the Secretary-General to the 48th session of the Commission for Social Development: Further implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002 (November 25, 2009)
(Report also available in French,
Chinese, Russian,
Arabic and Spanish)
The UN has issued the Secretary General’s report to the upcoming session of the Commission for Social Development in February 2010. The report highlights priorities that Member States identified for the year ahead and outlines their views on how to implement the Madrid Plan of Action on Ageing more effectively.
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General Assembly
Secretariat
ECOSOC
UN Funds and Programs
Conventions
NGOs
Focal
Points on Aging
The
UN Secretariat Building
in New York, US
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