39
PRIORITYMEASURE21
“Ensure the inclusion and equitable participationof older persons in the design and applicationof policies, plans and programmes that concern them.”
Possible lines of action
1. Involve older persons in consultation processes at all levels of decision-making; 2. Ensure that older persons can participatewith voice
and vote in the advisory boards of the institutions responsible for matters relating to ageing; 3. Encourage older persons to see
themselves as capable of influencing election outcomes; 4. Work to ensure that the growing influence of older people in election
processes is not seen in a negativemanner by other groupswithin society;. 5. See that olderwomen have the opportunity to participate in
public and political life, to hold public office, and to obtain the information to present themselves as candidates for election; 6. In cases
where these do not already exist, encourage the establishment of older persons’ organizations at all levels; 7. Provide financial and
technical support to older persons’ organizations to assist in their operations and self-management; 8. Create an environment that
facilitates participationby older persons in volunteer activities.
Targets
1. Existence of formal or informal forums in which older persons and public officials can meet to discuss their respective rights and
responsibilities and to work together; 2. Volunteer programmes include older persons among their members; 3. Voting stations have
access facilities for older persons.
Tentative indicators
1. Percentage of programmes designedwith the participation of older persons; 2. Percentage of older personswho are volunteers; 3. Percentage
ofolder personswhovoted in the latest elections; 4. Percentageofolderpersonswhoengage in local forumsonpolicymakingandprogrammes.
Related instruments,
forums andmechanisms
The UnitedNations Principles for Older Persons include 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 that “they should be able to formmovements or associations of older persons.” (Resolution 46/91 of 16 December
1991,
Implementation of the International Planof ActiononAgeing and relatedactivities
).
TheMadrid International Plan of Action onAgeing sets forth, in its PriorityDirection 1: Older Persons andDevelopment, the objective
(1) of recognizing the social, cultural, economic and political contribution of older persons, and includes recommendations such as to
(i) 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; (ii) provide information and access to facilitate the participation of older persons inmutual
self-help, intergenerational community groups and opportunities for realizing their full potential. Objective 2 relates to participation of
older persons in decision-makingprocesses at all levels, and includes recommendations to (i) take into account the needs and concerns of
older persons in decision-making at all levels; (ii) 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 (iii) take measures to enable the full and equal
participation of older persons, inparticular olderwomen, indecision-making at all levels.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in its General Recommendation No. 27, 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
.”
(CEDAW/C/2010/47/GC.1), Committee on theElimination ofDiscrimination againstWomen, 2010).
Comment
This measure is related to PM 27, which calls upon countries to “Include older persons as a priority focus of public policy and as
fundamental stakeholders in the formulation and implementationof policies aiming to improve the quality of life of older persons.”
Article 4 of the Inter-AmericanConvention onprotecting the human rights of older persons, onGeneral Duties of States Parties, provides
that they shall “adopt and strengthen such legislative, administrative, judicial, budgetary, and othermeasures asmay be necessary to give
effect to and raise awareness of the rights recognized in the present Convention, including adequate access to justice, in order to ensure
differentiated and preferential treatment for older persons in all areas.”
