Comments
This measure is related to priority measure 21: “Ensure the inclusion and equitable participation of older persons in the design and application of policies, plans and programmes that concern them.”
Related instruments, forums and mechanisms
The United Nations Principles for Older Persons include the principle of participation, and declare that older persons should participate actively in the formulation and implementation of policies that directly affect their well-being and share their knowledge and skills with younger generations and should be able to form movements or associations of older persons (United Nations General Assembly resolution 46/91, on Implementation of the International Plan of Action on Ageing and related activities, of 16 December 1991).
The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing sets forth, under priority direction 1 (“Older persons and development”), objective 1 on “recognition of the social, cultural, economic and political contribution of older persons” (which includes recommendations such as to “offer opportunities, programmes and support to encourage older persons to participate or continue to participate in cultural, economic, political and social life and lifelong learning” and “provide information and access to facilitate the participation of older persons in mutual self-help, intergenerational community groups and opportunities for realizing their full potential” and objective 2 on “participation of older persons in decision-making processes at all levels” (which includes recommendations to “take into account the needs and concerns of older persons in decision-making at all levels”; “encourage, when they do not already exist, the establishment of organizations of older persons at all levels to, inter alia, represent older persons in decision-making”; and “take measures to enable the full and equal participation of older persons, in particular older women, in decision-making at all levels’).
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in its general recommendation No. 27 on older women and protection of their human rights, declares that “States parties have an obligation to ensure that older women have the opportunity to participate in public and political life and hold public office at all levels and that older women have the necessary documentation to register to vote and run as candidates for election.”
