To be signed by civil society organizations (like NGOs), national human rights institutions and bodies of other type like equality bodies, universities, councils of seniors at local level, universities of third age, health and care facilities and others
Scroll down for the on-line form to sign the letter on behalf of your organization and for suggested inner procedure to gain approval to sign the letter within your organization/institution.
An Open Letter to the United Nations General Assembly’s Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA) calling for drafting a new UN Convention on the Human Rights of Older Persons
We would like to invite you as civil society organizations and a group of national human rights institutions to sign an Open Letter on the Rights of Older Persons urging member states of the United Nations (UN) to take action and commence the drafting of a new UN convention on the rights of older persons.
The first launch of the Open Letter took place on 20th of September 2021 during the 48th Session of the UN Human Rights Council with over 200 signatories from Civil Society Organizations, National Human Rights Institutions and bodies of other type from 62 countries!
Your organization/institution may still join the supporters to make our voice stronger before the upcoming 12th OEWGA Session, which will be held on 11-14 April 2022! We are going to present the Open Letter to the OEWGA Bureau members a month before and during the 12th Session of OEWGA,
so please sign before 5 March 2022 – but you will be able to sign it later as well.
The Open Letter will be published with the names of the organizations/institutions (not with the names of contact persons).
The OEWGA is the forum where UN member states discuss a possibility of strengthening rights of older persons. Since 2012 OEWGA is obliged to propose to UN General Assembly the elements of international legal instrument to promote and protect the rights and dignity of older persons at the earliest possible date but they fail with fulfilling this obligation. So in the Open Letter we ask for what member states should have done already long time ago.
For more about OEWGA have a look here.
Bonus! You may use the following inner procedure for organizations/institutions to present this opportunity of signing the Open Letterwithin your organization/institution by informing e.g. the CEO/director/president of your organization/institution. This is only for your inner use to facilitate gaining approval to sign the Open Letter within your institution/organization (you don’t need to send it back to us). You may use the answers we proposed but also rewrite them. Please download this procedure here (.doc to be download)
Please support this action! Your support and engagement are highly needed and will be much appreciated.
on-line form
To sign the letter on behalf of your organization, institution please complete this online form
- Name of the contact person
- E-mail to the contact person
- Name of the organization/institution
- Type of the organization:
- NGO
- National Human Rights Institution
- University/Academia
- Council of seniors (like at municipal level)
- University of Third Age
- health/care facility
- Institution/organization of other type – [a space to put the type down]
- Is your organization an organization of older persons?
- yes – it is
- no – we are allies of older persons
- it’s difficult to answer this question
- Country (to be chosen from a list) – with the possibility to choose global or one of six UN regions if your organization/institution acts on international level.
- I agree to receive information about the follow up of this action supporting creating a new convention on the rights of older persons (yes/no)
- Please add the name of our organization/institution to the list of signatories of the Open Letter. (yes/no)
- Additional comments:……………..
The data are collected by International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA).
Bonus: inner procedure
You may also use this inner procedure for organizations/institutions to inform their CEO’s/directors/presidents. Please use it or rewrite it according to your needs.
– please don’t send it back to us – it’s for your inner use only.
(please download .doc)
INNER PROCEDURE FOR ORGANIZATION/INSTITUTION
to SIGN ON TO OPEN LETTERS
The name of the Open Letter:
An Open Letter to the United Nations General Assembly’s Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA) calling for drafting a new UN Convention on the Human Rights of Older Persons
The Open Letter is available i.a. at GAROP’s website and National Human Rights Commission of Korea website
with the list of signatories who signed up till 20th of September 2021.
Who is requesting the sign on? (please put here the name of NGO or Institution from whom you received the information/invitation to sign the Open Letter)
Eligible Organizations to sign the letter:
Why is this request being made?
To urge the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA) to start drafting a new convention on the rights of older persons. It would include also rights of older women, older persons with disabilities, older people of different ethnic background, indigenous older persons, older LGBTQI people and older persons with any other characteristic.
Who will this letter go to?
To a broader public and to the members of Bureau of UN Open-ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA), other UN System representatives and representatives of UN Members States
Whom will our institution/organization inform about this Open Letter?
…………………………
Please indicate relevant representatives of the government in your country or representatives of other bodies/media, indicate also other organizations and institutions which could sign the open letter etc.
You are also invited to post about the letter in social media.
Please use these hashtags on social media to let us and others know who got this information from you: #LetterToOEWGA12 #AgewithRights #MoreDraftingLessTalking #OEWGA12
Key points; highlights of the asks in the Open Letter.
- The OEWGA is asked to create an expert group who will support the OEWGA in drafting a new Convention in the time between OEWGA Sessions
- The OEWGA is asked to include the OHCHR Analysis (a link below) as an official document in OEWGA work. The Analysis shows shortcomings in international legal protection of the rights of older persons.
Supporting documents Embedded links below:
- OEWGA website
- OEWGA mandate: Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 20 December 2012 (A/RES/76/139), point. 2.: “to present to the General Assembly, at the earliest possible date, a proposal containing, inter alia, the main elements that should be included in an international legal instrument to promote and protect the rights and dignity of older persons, which are not currently addressed sufficiently by existing mechanisms and therefore require further international protection”.
- UN OHCHR Analysis: Update to the 2012 Analytical Outcome Study on the normative standards in international human rights law in relation to older persons, 2021
Pros for sign on:
- Accelerating the process of drafting and adopting a new convention on the rights of older persons
- Joining the broader community of advocates for the rights of older persons
Cons for not endorsing:
Leaving older persons behind
Expected outcomes:
Visibility of the urgent need to have a new UN convention on the rights of older persons drafted and adopted
Deadline for Signatures:
best before 5 March 2022
to be included in the list of signatories before the upcoming 12th OEWGA Session
but you will be able to sign later as well
Accepted to sign on the Open Letter
…………………….
Signature of the head of organization/institution or other authorised person