International Rights of Older Persons: What Difference Would a New Convention Make to the Lives of Older People?

Abstract

In recent years there is a growing interest in the creation of an international convention on the right of older persons.

The research question examined in this article was: what difference, if any, would a new convention on the rights of older persons make to the lives of older people in light of the previous experience with the Convention on the Eliminations of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The article presents a spectrum of three possible approaches to answer this question: negative, neutral, and positive. The article presents and discusses each approach. The article concludes that based on past experience, an international convention on the rights of older persons, could potentially serve as a solid foundation for a process which eventually would bring true positive change to older persons around the world, especially in regions and countries that lack existing legal mechanisms to provide fundamental human rights for their older population.

Keywords: Elder law, International Convention, International Elder Law