Welcome to the UN House and to this Regional Working Meeting on a new legally binding instrument on the rights of older persons.

Let me start by thanking AGE Platform, a much-valued partner of the UN Human Rights Office, for the cooperation in organizing this event. This is not the first time we work together – over the past years we have regularly collaborated to highlight gaps in the human rights protection of older persons.

Such efforts have been much needed. While the human rights of other groups are regularly subject of discussion, the situation of older persons is rarely addressed. And when it is, it is often about older people as recipients of care or as a demographic group putting a financial burden on society. It is very rarely about human rights.

Yet, older persons face unique human rights challenges, such as age-based discrimination; inadequate social protection or access to health care, lack of autonomy in decision-making, and vulnerability to violence, neglect, and abuse.

Older persons are, for example, frequently excluded from clinical studies, denied medication, or ignored in decisions about their treatment simply because of their age. Ageism also prevents them from accessing the labour market; and they are often not taken seriously by law enforcement or social workers when reporting cases of abuse. As a result, violations and mistreatment involving older persons go unnoticed.

Older persons are also often excluded from deinstitutionalization programmes and, consequently, denied the right to independent living.

Ageism is so pervasive in our societies that it goes largely unrecognized and unchallenged. Older persons are invisible, both in law and in practice, and also within the international legal framework. Analysis by OHCHR in 2022 illustrates that the existing human rights framework is inadequate when it comes to older persons.

This is now about to change. Last year, the Human Rights Council adopted a milestone Resolution establishing an Intergovernmental Working Group with a mandate to start drafting an international legally binding instrument on the rights of older persons.

To anticipate this exciting process, we are convening a diverse group of actors today. I am happy to see that so many of you, from the EU institutions, Member States, the Council of Europe, UN colleagues, and civil society – and especially older persons’ organizations – made it here today!

The aim of today’s meeting is to inform you about the Intergovernmental Working Group and the drafting process of the new human rights instrument, and to discuss how the EU and the Council of Europe can engage in – and be at the forefront of – the process. We will also learn from other treaty-making processes, such as the CRPD, where the EU was a key player. We hope, of course, that the EU will play an equally active role when it comes to this new instrument on the rights of older persons.

As the process is still in its early days, we are conscious that many of you are here primarily to listen and learn. I would like to stress that this is an informal exchange and a safe environment to ask questions and to share views and perspectives. We are not recording this event.

Without further ado, I now hand over the floor to our opening speaker from the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Cyprus to the EU. Cyprus is one of the 14 EU Member States that co-sponsored the Human Rights Council Resolution, and it has made the rights of older persons a priority for its Presidency.