A/HRC/24/25 for around 2 billion people (or 22 per cent of the world population). This trend was evolving throughout the world, in both developed and developing countries and in all regions. By 2050, nearly 80 per cent of the world’s older persons would live in developing countries. Nonetheless, there were significant differences between regions: in Africa, which had the youngest population, 6 per cent of its population was aged 60 or over; in Latin America, it was 11 per cent, in North America, 19 per cent, and in Europe, 22 per cent. 17. Globally, women accounted for the majority of older persons; for every 100 women aged 60 or over, there were just 84 men. Women tended to be more prone to poverty, discrimination and abuse. Almost half of older women lived alone, whereas only a minority of older men did. These differences had important the implications for policy, programming and the promotion and protection of human rights. 18. Population ageing had to be approached as a reason to celebrate and as a challenge. Longer and healthier lives, the result of improved nutrition, sanitation, better health care, education and economic well-being, should be celebrated. Nonetheless, a decision had to be made about how this longevity could be harnessed and to secure the contributions that a socially and economically active, secure and healthy ageing population could bring to society. The challenge was to “add life to years, not just years to life”. 19. In order to meet the above-mentioned challenge, change was needed in three key areas. First, there was an urgent need to guarantee income security and access to essential health and social services for older persons. Second, investing in young people today was vital for improving the lives of future generations of older persons. This had to be combined with flexible employment, lifelong learning and retraining opportunities to enable and encourage current generations of older persons to remain in the labour market. Finally, everyone – including Governments, civil society, communities, families and older persons themselves – had to be involved in developing a new rights-based culture of ageing and change the mindset and social attitudes to ageing and older persons from welfare recipients to active, contributing members of society. 20. Ms. Bras Gomes highlighted the important protection offered to older persons by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The provisions that were particularly relevant for older persons included articles 6 to 8 on just and favourable conditions of work, article 9 on the right to social security, article 10 on protection of the family, article 11 on the right to an adequate standard of living and article 12 on the right to physical and mental health. In addition, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had interpreted the scope of State obligations under the Covenant for older persons in its general comment No. 6, which took into account various United Nations documents, such as the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing, the United Nations Principles for Older Persons and the Proclamation on Ageing. 21. Ms. Bras Gomes addressed the issue of the obstacles faced by older persons in the enjoyment of the rights included in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. With regard to the right to work and rights at work, she pointed out the absence of rights in the informal economy, the lack of training and retraining for older persons and age-related work redundancies as major issues. Challenges to the right to social security, which included contributory and non-contributory pensions and cash-transfer programmes, included the lack of universal coverage and the inadequacy of pensions, the impact of austerity measures and financial setbacks, and gender inequalities in pension regimes, which had a negative impact on women. With regard to the right to health, major difficulties included the lack of universal coverage, the privatization of services, the impact of austerity measures and the poor coordination of health and other social care services. She noted that the enjoyment of all the rights covered by the Covenant would only be ensured if they were promoted and supported actively by sound public policies, with the involvement of civil society. 6