A/HRC/42/43/Add.2 D. Adequate standard of living and autonomy 52. More than half of older persons in Mozambique (58 per cent) live below the official poverty line compared to 54 per cent for the rest of the population. 20 53. Older women are often left to survive in situations of poverty, isolated from the community and stigmatized as a result of accusations of witchcraft. Older women who have lost their husbands tend to be excluded from the extended family and are considered a burden on the community (A/HRC/26/28/Add.1, para. 40). 21 Reports suggest that the practice by which the extended family expropriates household property from the widow continues to affect many women, who are forced to take a subordinate position within the family circle after losing their property. 22 With extraordinary illiteracy rates and a lack of education, financial capacity or legal empowerment, such women do not have the resources to defend their tenure. 54. Older persons caring for others, including orphaned children, often live in extremely precarious circumstances, dealing with their own health concerns (8.5 per cent of people between 50 and 65 years old in Mozambique are HIV-positive), but also having to provide care.23 Older persons, in particular women, lack sufficient income to support themselves and their dependents, and small measures can make a big difference to their quality of life. The provision of adequate nutrition or transportation costs to the nearest health centre, for example, would greatly improve their situation (ibid., para. 39). 55. Lack of physical and economic access to basic services particularly affects older persons, including those with disabilities, living in rural areas. Many older persons are illiterate and have limited alternative means of income (ibid.). 56. Public transport is very limited in rural areas and bicycles are the most common means of transport. That leaves many older persons with no or inadequate means of transport. 57. Despite the efforts of the Government, such as the adoption of the National Plan of Action on Disability (2006–2010), the living conditions of persons with disabilities, including older persons with disabilities, remain more precarious than those of the rest of the population (ibid., paras. 43–44). E. Social protection and the rights to social security 58. While Mozambique does not have a consolidated universal social pension system, the Government in recent years has approved a series of legislative and political documents to expand and improve social protection,24 including the adoption of the Social Protection Law in February 2007. 59. The current social protection system in Mozambique has been organized on three levels: non-contributory basic, compulsory, and complementary social security. The noncontributory transfers target the poorest households, older persons, persons with disabilities, persons with a chronic health condition and households with orphans and vulnerable 20 21 22 23 24 10 António Francisco, Gustavo Sugahara and Peter Fisker, “Growing old in Mozambique: dynamics of well-being and poverty”. See also Carmeliza Rosário, Inge Tvedten and Margarida Paulo, “‘Mucupuki’. Social relations of rural-urban poverty in central Mozambique” (2008), p. 57. Lauren Hendricks and Patrick Meagher, “Women’s property rights and inheritance in Mozambique: report of research and fieldwork”, CARE Economic Development Unit Learning Series No. 1 (2012), p. 2. See HelpAge International, “Strengthening the response: older people in the response to HIV and AIDS in Mozambique” (2010), p. 3. See Nuno Cunha and others, “Towards a Mozambican social protection floor: consolidating a comprehensive social protection system in Mozambique. Analysis of policy alternatives and costs”, ILO (2013), p. 1.