Brief Intervention of Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit, Focal Commissioner on Ageing and the Rights of Older Persons, at the event of the International Federation on Ageing entitled “Paving the Way to OEWGA11” on 11 December 2020 8-9:30AM EST (9-10:30PM PHT)

Transcript [1:00:07] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSyW-qOhPEc

Thank you and good evening from Manila. Thank you for including national human rights institutions in this townhall meeting.

The Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines is a proud member of the Working Group on Ageing of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions.

Our Commission and NHRIs all around the world support the movement for a Convention on the Rights of Older Persons. We believe that the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA), in its eleventh session, should really aim to make larger strides towards achieving this particular goal.

We have been working closely with the OEWGA Secretariat – DESA and OHCHR, UN agencies, governments, NGOs, and older persons themselves in national and international scenes to keep this conversation going especially amid the pandemic. With the leadership of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, we’ve recently concluded the global conference in the run-up to the 11th Session of the OEWGA where there was a general consensus among experts and participants that there exists a protection gap on older persons’ rights; that a Convention is needed to address these gaps; and that we need this urgently.

I am wondering what else we can do to support the work of the OEWGA Bureau, and our governments in missions and in the capital so that the 11th Session can deliver outcomes that will have a positive impact on the rights of older persons around the world. And for NHRIs, whose governments have been on the other side of the debate for a Convention, what else can they do to advocate more effectively to their governments?

We look forward to the upcoming session and we fervently pray for the adoption of the inter-governmentally negotiated recommendations.

Thank you very much.