Challenges to the autonomy and interdependent rights of older persons

Chapter VI
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
For the first time,
countries of the
region have a legally
binding instrument
that identifies State
obligations regarding
older persons. The
Convention also goes
some way to remedying
the lack of consideration
afforded older persons
in international human
rights law.
and the world. For the first time, countries can refer to a legally binding instrument that
sets forth State obligations regarding older persons. The Convention also introduces
new rights and goes some way to remedying the lack of consideration afforded older
persons in international human rights law.
The implementation of the Convention is just beginning. States will now have to
work to establish mechanisms to guarantee the freedoms and rights it establishes.
This is a task that calls for innovation, transparency, skilled personnel and the allocation
of public funds.
The experience with the implementation of the Madrid International Plan of
Action on Ageing and its regional translations offers useful lessons in relation to the
obligations undertaken in the Inter-American Convention. Without question, one key
asset of the agreements enshrined in ECLAC regional instruments is their promotion
of more comprehensive approaches to government treatment of matters relating to
older persons. This lesson is crucial in the current scenario.
Since 2003, several countries have made achieved notable progress. For example,
the mistreatment of older persons has been established as a public issue, laws have
been created to protect their human rights, action has been taken to preserve their
autonomy and provide care in situations of fragility, and medium-term planning has been
restored in the form of national plans and administrative reforms to bring institutions
responsible for older persons within the remit of social ministries.
Some of these initiatives have withstood the test of time, others less so. Over
the past five years, some have suffered from lack of adequate methodology, technical
follow-up or regular evaluations. Many have suffered budgetary constraints, while
others have failed to generate the political will to survive a change in administration.
Consequently, various programmes that began five years ago have ceased to exist. Some
national institutions serving older persons have even slipped down in the government
hierarchy or been shifted to different government departments. In this regard, they
have been less resilient than institutions serving women or children.
A regionwide evaluation of action in support of older persons shows that —with
notable exceptions— such action has not permeated all areas of government responsibility
and that issues concerning the older population tend to be confined to specific entities
or sectors. The efforts of ageing-related institutions or authorities sometimes run up
against structural limitations that threaten their credibility and undermine the trust
invested in them by older persons.
These factors, along with the scarcity of skilled personnel and only incipient
standardization of rules and processes, place severe constraints on what institutions
can achieve. Unless this changes, effective implementation of the Inter-American
Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons will be a difficult task
over the coming years.
Older persons and their organizations are clear on this point. Accordingly, their
most frequent demands over the past five years have included a higher organizational
status to be accorded to the institutions that represent them, and for their issues to
be addressed from a human-rights perspective. This latter aspiration is no coincidence.
Older persons and their organizations are increasingly aware that the manner in which
their issues, needs and interests are treated in government discourse influences
society, its understanding of their situation and its appreciation of their contributions.
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