A/HRC/28/35 41. According to ILO Recommendation 202, national social protection floors should, among its minimum components, at least guarantee basic income security in old age (para. 5 (d)). By doing so, national social protection floors have the potential to help reduce older persons’ vulnerabilities, enabling them to enjoy their rights. 42. Without income security, older persons, particularly older women, are at increased risk of seeing their rights violated. As the proportion of older women outnumbers that of older men, universal pension systems might be the most gender-sensitive response. Gender discrimination might limit the ability of women to influence decision-making processes and, as a result, exclude them from being beneficiaries of targeted pensions. In universal schemes, men and women receive the same level of benefits irrespective of their years in the formal labour market, thus recognizing the contributions women make in unpaid work such as caregiving. In developing countries, universal pensions may be the only means by which most women can guarantee income in old age. 43. Ensuring basic income security in old age is closely linked to programmes on the right to the highest attainable standard of health by older persons.55 Expenses for health care and medicines may account for as much as three quarters of the income of the poorest groups.56 Under those circumstances, the positive impact of social protection guarantees on older persons’ standards of living can be nullified by the burden of health-care-related costs.57 For that reason, there should be coordination between programmes aiming to ensure basic income security and programmes aiming to ensure the right to health. C. Persons with disabilities 44. The principle of non-discrimination in international human rights law obliges States to ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy all their rights on an equal basis with others, including their rights to social security and an adequate standard of living. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires States parties to ensure access of persons with disabilities to social protection and poverty reduction programmes, and the right of those living in poverty and their families to have access to assistance from the State with disability-related expenses (art. 28).58 45. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has specified the content of the right to social security regarding persons with disabilities. It has noted that States should ensure adequate income support to persons with disabilities who, owing to disability or disability-related factors, have lost or seen their income reduced or have been denied employment opportunities.59 It noted that such income support should reflect the special needs for assistance associated with disability and should also cover individuals, often women, who undertake the care of persons with disabilities.60 55 56 57 58 59 60 See, e.g., thematic study on right to health of older persons of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Anand Grover, A/HRC/18/37. See J. Randel et al. (eds.), The Ageing and Development Report: Poverty, independence and the world’s older people (HelpAge International, 1999). A/HRC/14/31, paras. 90–94. Regional treaties, such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (art. 18, para. 4) and the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 18) have specific clauses regarding the rights of persons with disabilities. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 5 (1994) on persons with disabilities, para. 28. Ibid., para. 28. 13