A/HRC/39/50 III. Social exclusion: concepts, manifestations and the impact on the human rights of older persons A. Background 17. Social exclusion refers to the separation of individuals and groups from mainstream society. While there is no generally agreed definition, the social exclusion of older persons is a complex process that involves the lack or denial of resources, rights, goods and services as people age and the inability to participate in societal relationships and activities, available to the majority of people across the varied and multiple domains of society. It affects both the quality of life of older persons and the equity and cohesion of an ageing society as a whole. Unlike related concepts such as poverty and deprivation, social exclusion provides a means to understand the dynamic and multilevel construction of oldage disadvantage.3 18. Social exclusion is a relative concept, which refers to the fact that it is assessed against a population base, for example the general population. It further involves agency: older persons are being excluded against their will or lack the agency to achieve integration for themselves, or choose to exclude themselves from mainstream society. While the social exclusion of younger people is dynamic or processual, with individuals and groups moving in and out of exclusion and experiencing different forms of exclusion over time, the experience of older persons vulnerable to exclusion may be less prone to change. Most definitions acknowledge the multidimensionality of social exclusion, for example in terms of the impact of exclusion on various domains of the lives of older persons. 4 19. There are a number of risk associations or potential drivers of old-age exclusion, such as living alone, gender, ethnicity, or being very old. The relationship between social categorizations, such as gender, social class and ethnicity, and exclusion is complex, given the correlation with other risk factors, such as living alone and income. While gender, for instance, is not a significant predictor of overall exclusion, it is connected to certain individual domains, i.e. older women are more likely to be excluded from cultural activities, while they are less likely to be excluded from social relationships. 5 20. Exclusion from material and financial resources in later life is one of the manifestations of social exclusion. Poverty can exacerbate the denial of basic human rights as well as limit choices and opportunities for a tolerable life. In many societies, older persons comprise a disproportionate number of the poor, the persistent poor and the poorest among the poor. In the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 12.5 per cent of individuals aged over 65 live in relative income poverty and older women are at greater risk of poverty than older men.6 Risk factors for old-age poverty include a lack of access to regular income, to work and to health care, declining physical and mental capacities, and dependency within the household. Moreover, as people grow older, they tend to be progressively excluded from the formal and informal work market, but are often not or insufficiently protected by social security systems. 21. While adequate material resources are an important prerequisite for the social integration of older persons, there are other central aspects, such as the participation and integration of older persons in recognized social roles and the ways in which exclusion operates at a spatial level, namely how neighbourhoods are organized or perceived. 3 4 5 6 6 See Kieran Walsh, Thomas Scharf and Norah Keating, “Social exclusion of older persons: a scoping review and conceptual framework”, European Journal of Ageing, vol. 14, No. 1 (March 2017). See Peter Saunders, “Can social exclusion provide a new framework for measuring poverty?”, Social Policy Research Centre, discussion paper No. 127, October 2003. See Dylan Kneale, Is Social Exclusion Still Important for Older People?, the International Longevity Centre — UK, September 2012. See OECD, Pensions at a Glance, 2017, p. 136.