A/HRC/44/36 concluded that discrimination against and stigmatization of older people must be eliminated and older women should be included, respected, protected and accounted for. 43. Mr. Byrnes stressed that the rights discussed at the panel were linked to broader notions than economic empowerment, such as women’s political participation and representation. On pensions and social support, including a universal social pension, he highlighted certain interlinked issues that should be addressed, such as the fairness of tax systems and laws, the way in which current pension contributions were seen and the basis of eligibility for pensions, bearing in mind that a link to paid employment was fundamentally discriminatory to women. He also noted the current gaps in data and statistics, and the need for these issues to be looked at from different perspectives through national action plans and policies, including gender and age. He concluded that to strengthen older women’s rights, reporting to the existing United Nations human rights treaty bodies remained important, as was ensuring that those bodies had sufficient time and resources and the development of new ways for States to focus on the rights of older women. 44. Ms. Bethel agreed that it was important to make grandmothers more visible and that the pension issue was crucial. She believed that, thus far, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was the appropriate mechanism to address the rights of older women, with information received through national reports and shadow reports. She underscored the importance, both for States and for civil society, of highlighting the issue of older women and providing specificity from the national perspective so that the Committee could better respond to and focus on the issue. She emphasized that civil society organizations could forward specific issues to the Committee, as well as being present during the hearing, and that the Committee would appreciate hearing about the whole complexity of the lives and life cycle of older women. With regard to national action plans and policies, she reiterated that they should address the rights of older women holistically and through a human rights-based and life-cycle approach. To conclude, she emphasized the importance of looking at transformative equality and the lived experiences of older women, which went beyond a strictly legal approach and included literacy, education and economic empowerment. 45. Ms. Ferro summarized the conversation, which had focused on discrimination but also empowerment. She reiterated that work was needed, both on substantive topics, such as a life-cycle approach, education, employment and political empowerment, but also in regard to programming, implementing and monitoring. A gender lens should be applied to all the work being done and more data was necessary to adequately foresee and address issues. She concluded the panel discussion with a call to action to “finish the unfinished business”: everything that was needed for action was known, all that was left was to deliver for women and for the girls who would one day be adults and older women. 10