A/HRC/44/36 regional human rights instruments and align national legislation with the Convention and other international instruments. 28. Ms. Valdez Palisoc provided illustrative examples and actions that could be taken by global, regional, national and local trade unions. For example, the United Domestic Workers of the Philippines had established a gender committee and developed strategies for facilitating the ratification of relevant ILO Conventions by the State. She seconded Ms. Vega and encouraged all actors to familiarize themselves with the provisions of ILO Convention No 190 and Recommendation No. 206, which gave detailed guidance on how to eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work. 29. Complementing responses to questions from the floor on good practices, the moderator pointed out that the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises was compiling a list of good practices for applying gender lenses to the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and that the compilation would be made available on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. He highlighted three key elements of the efforts to eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work, identified in the course of compiling good practices. First, making business activities gender-responsive required changes in mindset; it could not be simply another box to tick, but required fundamental structural transformation. Second, the internal grievance mechanisms of business enterprises needed to take complaints on gender-based violence and harassment seriously; gender sensitivity of members of such grievance mechanisms was necessary. Thirdly, more women should play central roles in trade unions. III. The rights of older women and their economic empowerment 30. The second panel discussion was also opened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The panel was moderated by Mónica Ferro, Director of the United Nations Population Fund Office in Geneva. The panel comprised Idah Nambeya, Senior Adviser to the “Grandmothers to Grandmothers” campaign at the Stephen Lewis Foundation; Andrew Byrnes, Professor of International Law at the University of New South Wales, Australia; and Marion Bethel, member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. A. Opening statement by the High Commissioner for Human Rights 31. In her opening remarks, the High Commissioner reiterated that the global ageing of societies should be celebrated, since it demonstrated that people could live and contribute to society for longer. She cited the most recent World Population Prospects report, in which it was estimated that by 2050 1 in 6 people would be over the age of 65, which was up from 1 in 11 in 2019. However, she explained that despite these facts, the rights of older persons, and particularly older women, were being profoundly neglected by policymakers and even the human rights community. She therefore applauded the panel discussion as an important opportunity to give due recognition to the rights and contributions of older women. 32. The High Commissioner pointed out that older women were contributing to societies in a myriad of roles. She noted that almost a quarter of women over the age of 60 were working, many in farming and primarily in the informal sector. In sub-Saharan Africa, as many as 42 per cent of women aged over 65 participated in the labour force. Furthermore, many older women were engaged in unpaid domestic and care work, which often involved childcare and also the care of older persons. She gave the example of Japan, where data from 2016 indicated that almost 70 per cent of the women who provided care for older members of the family were themselves over the age of 60. While these jobs were not being accounted for in the formal economy, many societies would barely function without them. 33. The High Commissioner indicated that in spite of those important roles, older women faced not only the burden of age discrimination but also the consequences of deep, wide-ranging and lifelong gender discrimination, culminating in an old age that was likely to be destitute, isolated and vulnerable to abuse. As older women had been excluded from education, vocational training or formal work opportunities throughout their life, they would ultimately not benefit from social protections such as pensions. Moreover, she 7