EU Statement – UN Open-ended Working Group on Ageing: General Discussion

OPENING STATEMENT

Thank you Mrs. Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries Turkey, North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Serbia* and Albania*, the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the Republic of Moldova, Georgia, and San Marino, align themselves with this statement.

The EU condemns in the strongest terms Russia's unjustified and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. We demand that Russia immediately stop its military aggression, immediately and unconditionally withdraw all forces from the entire territory of Ukraine, and fully respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence within its internationally recognised borders, as demanded by UNGA resolution a/ES-11/1.

The European Union welcomes the opening of the twelve session of the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing. While this year’s session takes place at a moment where trends show that COVID 19 pandemic is subsiding, older persons nevertheless remain at higher risk of severe illness from the virus. They are also seriously affected by the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic, which exacerbates pre-existing inequalities and disproportionately affects persons in vulnerable situations, including loneliness. Physical distancing accentuates the necessity to intensify lifelong learning and social support for older persons as well as their inclusion in the digital transition.

At the same time, older persons have contributed to our collective emergency responses and solidarity efforts. Many older persons help our communities by returning as medical or nursing staff, or providing voluntary services to relieve others in their everyday lives. While helping to shield the vulnerable, our societies need to recognise the potential of older persons to contribute to and shape healthy, productive, peaceful and innovative communities. Enabling their contribution, free from ageist discrimination and seclusion, is paramount to ensuring inter-generational solidarity.

The European Union promotes age non-discrimination policies in the United Nations and has been promoting a better mainstreaming of the human rights of older persons through the work of the UN. Moreover, together with Member States, the European Union is party to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that also protects the rights of those older persons that have age-related impairments.

We welcome the importance given by the working sessions to providing an opportunity for dialogue on how to foster solidarity between generations, as well as, how older persons can fully enjoy their human rights and reach their full potential. The EU strongly supports the broadest possible involvement of all actors and thus welcomes the inclusive participation of civil society organisations and National Human Rights Institutions.

We took note of the 2021 Report of the Secretary-General submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 75/152 on the impact of COVID-19 on older persons and his suggestion to ensure that ageing and old-age concerns are integrated into responses and preparedness plans in all policy areas at the national and international levels. The EU undertakes to ensure, in our response to and recovery from the COVID pandemic and beyond, to promote effective measures to ensure older persons human rights are protected and the transformative exercise of these rights enhanced.

In addition, the report highlights the importance of combating ageism and age discrimination, as well as, addressing the intersectional discrimination that affect older persons, in particular women and persons with disabilities. Τhe same way, the  EU also welcomes the 2021 Report of the Independent Expert, Claudia Mahler, on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons.

In the EU, ageing is the predominant demographic trend in many Member States. For this reason, the French, and upcoming Czech and Swedish presidencies will address the impact of these demographic changes in the EU with special focus to ensure older persons and persons with disabilities rights and inclusion are given the priority they deserve and our societies grow more resilient as a whole.

In 2020, at ministerial level the EU Council put forward a human-rights-based approach on “Improving the well-being of older persons in the era of digitalisation” and since 2021 all EU Member States are invited to develop a National Strategic Framework for Mainstreaming Ageing in Public Policies.

The 2021 European Commission’s Green Paper on Ageing identified key issues related to the ageing of EU population, for example pensions, long-term care, healthy and active ageing, looking at ageing in a cross-generational perspective. One of our major initiatives stemming from wide public consultation is the European Care Strategy which the EU is aiming to adopt this coming September. Considering care needs from infancy and throughout people’s lives until old age, the strategy will support the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, alongside a number of other initiatives on the rights of the child and the child guarantee, the rights of persons with disabilities and equal opportunities, work-life balance, old-age income and pensions, healthcare and long-term care as well as access to essential services.

Provision of services is an important parameter in ensuring that especially long-term unemployed, many of whom are older persons, can reintegrate into the labour market and are enabled and activated to contribute to society. Social inclusion services play a key role in addressing barriers to this activation. Examples of these services are rehabilitation, counselling, mentoring, social support, debt-counselling, or housing support. To this end, we are working on enhancing the EU framework on active inclusion of people excluded from the labour market through strengthening minimum income schemes encompassing the provision of minimum income benefits, activation measures, with a focus on labour market participation, and enabling social services, while preserving the sustainability of national social protection systems.

Mrs. Chair,

These recent developments illustrate the priority that the EU gives to the human rights of older persons and to the UN Agenda 2030. The contribution of older persons to society, namely their experience, their knowledge, and their skills, is duly and increasingly acknowledged. Improved living conditions allow many to remain active much longer and are able to fully, meaningfully and effectively participate in the society and contribute to sustainable development.

Climate change and environmental degradation are threatening the effective enjoyment of human rights. Those living in vulnerable situations feel these negative effects most acutely; strengthening and promoting the effective participation of human rights defenders, indigenous peoples, persons belonging to minorities, women and the youth in policymaking is therefore crucial to allow them to act as powerful agents of change and for the pursuit of a just transition. Older persons have a crucial role to play in participating and promoting this inter-generational and intra-communal dialogue and contributing to sustainable development. We reiterate our commitment to adopt ambitious rights-based approaches to ensure social justice, fairness and inclusiveness in the global transition towards climate neutrality and when addressing environmental degradation and biodiversity loss.

I wish all of us a fruitful discussion with the aim of foreseeing a tangible progress in meeting the needs of older persons and the realisation of their human rights.

Thank you, Mrs. Chair.

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.