A/HRC/39/50 22. More than half of the global population is currently living in cities, a number which is expected to rise dramatically in the next decades. 7 Urban growth and demographic transformation are changing the way we experience urban environments throughout our lives and into older age. However, older persons are not routinely incorporated into the mainstream of thinking and planning around urban environments. 23. Urban spaces can act both as enablers and barriers for the realization and enjoyment of the right of older persons to lead dignified and autonomous lives. Rapid urbanization sometimes leads to gentrification, a process in which lower-income urban areas undergo significant change owing to an influx of investment and/or more affluent residents. In the process of gentrification, market interests tend to take precedence over the human rights of residents. It is not uncommon for public facilities, such as sheltered housing and community centres either to be closed down or privatized, thus demonstrating a diminishing role for the State in providing for its citizens. In that framework, a close consideration of ageing and urban change under the spectrum of social justice is considered necessary to ensure that the benefits of gentrification can be shared by all residents. 24. Gentrification, a term heavily loaded with both positive and negative connotations since it was first coined by Ruth Glass in 1964, is not easily understood, measured or operationalized. Characteristic elements of gentrification include capital reinvestment, the influx of high-income social groups, landscape changes and the displacement of poorer groups. 8 It typically leads to an increase in housing costs, so low-income households, unable to find affordable housing, move towards the outskirts of the city in even more disadvantaged neighbourhoods than their previous residence. Loss of social ties also counts among one of the main risks of gentrification, as both those who leave and those who stay have to adapt to sharing their neighbourhood with strangers. On the other hand, those who remain in the gentrified area are also expected to benefit from improved levels of safety and services. Research in developing countries tends to refer to urban change, development or renewal and to slum clearance, rather than gentrification. 25. One of the main barriers to securing the rights of older persons on an equal basis with others and ensuring their social inclusion is the lack of acknowledgement of their contributions and of their untapped potential. That lack of understanding is deeply rooted in ageist stereotypes about what defines older persons. Prejudices about older persons being frail, sick and dependent drive their marginalization and legitimize exclusionary practices. 9 Unlike other forms of discrimination, ageism is socially accepted and usually unchallenged, because of its largely implicit and subconscious nature. It is so pervasive in policy, planning and implementation that the ways in which older persons are left behind become invisible. It is essential to actively combat ageism, as this thinking impinges on the development of inclusive policies in general. In this regard, the Independent Expert stresses the importance of the global campaign to combat ageism initiated by WHO in 2016, which she fully supports.10 B. Global policy framework 1. Sustainable Development Goals 26. One of the major advances of the Sustainable Development Goals compared with the Millennium Development Goals is that they apply to developing and developed 7 8 9 10 See United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “World urbanization prospects: the 2014 revision (highlights)” (2014). See Mark Davidson and Loretta Lees, “New-build ‘gentrification’ and London’s riverside renaissance”, Environment and Planning A, vol. 37, No. 7 (July 2005). See World Economic Forum, Global Population Ageing: Peril or Promise? (2012); and Astrid Stuckelberger, Dominic Abrams and Philippe Chastonay, “Age discrimination as a source of exclusion in Europe: the need for a human rights plan for older persons” in From Exclusion to Inclusion in Old Age: a Global Challenge, Norah Keating and Thomas Scharf, eds. (Bristol, Bristol University Press, 2012). See World Health Assembly resolution WHA69.3. 7