Protecting the elderly in light of international human rights conventions

Abstract

Studies on protection of the elderly at the international level are among the modern topics to confront the aging of the world's population and come within the framework of states' fulfillment of their international obligations within the framework of international human rights law. Therefore, the right of older persons to protection has become a global, regional and national phenomenon that has taken and remains its place among the basic human rights of human beings. Attention is drawn to it and questions about it and what it is, and this coincided with the absence of legal libraries of writings on this subject, in addition to the absence of texts in the relevant international agreements that deal with this aspect clearly and explicitly, and if any, they do not rise to the place of protection required. This requires highlighting what international human rights covenants have stipulated in terms of the rights of the elderly, in order to enhance opportunities to ensure the full and effective participation of the elderly in economic, social, cultural and political life, especially in the absence of a comprehensive international agreement to protect their rights and the important gaps that resulted, not least of which is the absence of a binding, uniforming and universal reference in the light of which one can monitor and evaluate the extent of states ’commitment to their rights.