A/HRC/30/43
Japan through a statement on 5 November 2014, highlighting the importance of a human
rights-based approach when addressing dementia, innovation in care and risk reduction.
9.
On 16 and 17 March 2015, she delivered a keynote speech at the World Health
Organization’s first Ministerial Conference on Global Action against Dementia, held in
Geneva. She stressed the importance of considering older persons with dementia as rights
holders and States as duty bearers with international obligations to respect, protect and
promote human rights. The Independent Expert was pleased to note that, for the first time,
States were integrating a human rights-based approach into their call for action against
dementia, which was adopted on 17 March as an outcome of the conference.
10.
The Independent Expert is mandated to pay particular attention to different groups
of older persons, including refugees and climate-displaced persons, as well as persons
facing conflict, emergency or disaster situations. On 18 March 2015, she participated in a
side event in Geneva on the margins of the twenty-eighth session of the Human Rights
Council, on “Building climate resilience: the rights of groups in focus”, organized jointly
by OHCHR, Displacement Solutions and the Applied Research Association on Justice,
Peace and Development.
11.
On 11 June 2015, the Independent Expert participated in a follow-up expert roundtable discussion on “Climate displacement and human rights” at the Centre for
Humanitarian Dialogue, Geneva. In her presentation, she highlighted the fact that older
persons were disproportionately affected by climate change, and referred to initiatives that
took into consideration the specific needs of older persons, such as the IASC (Inter-Agency
Standing Committee) Operational Guidelines on the Protection of Persons in Situations of
Natural Disasters, the Peninsula Principles on Climate Displacement within States, and the
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which had been adopted at the
Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held in Sendai, Japan,
from 14 to 18 March 2015.
12.
In accordance with her mandate, the Independent Expert also continued to work in
close coordination with the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing, and attended its sixth
session, which was held in New York from 14 to 16 July 2015. As a member of the panel
on recent policy developments and initiatives concerning the human rights of older persons,
she provided an overview of positive initiatives and remaining challenges for the full
enjoyment of all human rights by older persons.
III. Autonomy and care
13.
It is estimated that by 2050 over 20 per cent of the world’s population will be 60
years of age or older. While the increase in the number of older persons will be the greatest
and the most rapid in the developing world, Asia is the region with the largest number of
older persons, and Africa is facing the largest proportionate growth.
14.
In 2011, the Secretary-General, in his report on the follow-up to the Second World
Assembly on Ageing, stated:
With this in mind, enhanced attention to the particular needs and challenges faced by
many older people is clearly required. Just as important, however, is the essential
contribution the majority of older men and women can continue to make to the
functioning of society if adequate guarantees are in place. Human rights lie at the
core of all efforts in this regard.1
1
4
See A/66/173, para. 4.
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