The world is aging — and nations should act now to ensure that older people can live with dignity and autonomy, says Luis Gallegos, an accomplished Ecuadorian diplomat, former ambassador to the United Nations, and senior advisor at the Harvard Law School Project on Disability.
Older people across the globe face discrimination, barriers to financial security, and lack of access to social engagement, employment, healthcare, technology, and other needs that impact their quality of life, says Gallegos, who most recently served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ecuador.
Today, Gallegos is leading the push for an international treaty that would create a United Nations convention and agency on the rights of older people. According to the World Health Organization, there are currently more than one billion people in the world over the age of 60 — a figure that is set to double by 2050. And while rich countries have experienced the largest increase in the proportion of older adults, the shift is happening in low- and middle-income nations too, Gallegos says, making an international agreement even more important.
Gallegos, who is the chair of trustees of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, says the convention could join other key U.N. human rights treaties such as those guaranteeing rights for women, children, and people with disabilities. From 2002 to 2005, Gallegos himself led the successful negotiation of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was signed by President Barack Obama in 2009.
In an interview with Harvard Law Today, Gallegos explains why he is working to establish similar protections for older people — and how it could promote the dignity of seniors around the world.
Credit: Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative
Harvard Law Today: What inspired you to work on securing rights for older people?
Luis Gallegos: Here’s one reason. In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, I was in New York as an ambassador to the United Nations. On a good day, 1,000 people would die — and almost all of them were in elderly homes. No one really knew what was going on or how to care for them. I realized that one of the things we needed to protect was the rights of persons who are aging. I began by creating a foundation called the Global Initiative on Aging and Longevity, which is centered in Spain. We are attempting to create a network of organizations that work towards the dignity of persons who are aging.
HLT: Why do we need a convention to protect the rights of older people?
Gallegos: There are a lot of ways in which agism affects people around the world. There’s discrimination, social isolation, there is difficulty accessing technology and healthcare. As just one example, in many countries, people over the age of 65 are excluded from bank loans — they can’t get a loan to buy a car or a home. Another problem we see a lot is institutionalization — being confined in homes unless a relative or family member releases them. This is so even though many people are living healthily into their 90s, thanks to technology, better health, better food, and so on. They still frequently encounter these types of barriers.
So, why now? We have a cohort of one billion people older than 65. You have more senior adults than children being born in the world. In 2050, that will be 2 billion people who are considered “older.” When you multiply that by two, to calculate the number of additional people affected by these issues, such as family members or caregivers, you get four billion, for a total of six billion people impacted. That’s a lot of people. And many of them live in countries that do not protect the rights of people who are aging.
The numbers are telling you there is a problem. Yet, I sometimes find that after my conversations with world leaders, there is a notion of kicking the can down the road. Fundamentally, it means that this is such a wicked problem because it affects social security, it affects health institutions, insurance companies, bond holders, caretakers, workplace adaptations, and so on. Leaders want to let the next government solve it because it’s politically very charged. As just one example, in France, they tried to increase the retirement age by two years, and it spurred massive demonstrations. But the reality is, the demographics are showing us that we have an aging population, and people may live for another thirty years after retirement. The sustainability of our systems — and ensuring that they work for aging people — are some of our biggest concerns.
“Demographics are showing us that people may live for another thirty years after retirement … The sustainability of our systems — and ensuring that they work for aging people — are some of our biggest concerns.”
HLT: Is there a link between the convention you previously negotiated on the rights of people with disabilities and this new one you’re working on?
Gallegos: Yes. They complement one another. As you age beyond 65, you have an 85% possibility of having some type of disabling condition. But we also have more technologies that can improve our lives. With proper support, many of us can live better lives and often work longer than the relevant retirement age that has been artificially established.
HLT: You have said that ensuring dignity for older people is paramount in any agreement. Why?
Gallegos: I’ve worked in human rights for more than a quarter of a century, and one thing that it always comes back to is that the basic premise of human rights is dependent on the dignity of people. People need to have the capacity to use their rights adequately, to live under the premise that they are human beings who have rights that must be respected. This is of course also true for older people, a group that is not prioritized by our societies, as we saw during the pandemic. Living — and dying — with dignity are both important.
HLT: What sorts of rights would the treaty grant?
Gallegos: Normally, treaties of this kind do not grant new rights. Instead, rights that are contemplated in other conventions, such as the conventions involving women, children, antiracism, torture, and political rights, will be integrated into this convention. Ultimately, what we want to guarantee is that those rights protect the aging as well. To do that, we hope to also create a U.N. agency — perhaps using the UNICEF model, which is a partnership between private sectors of countries, institutions, healthcare organizations, and academia to better understand how to serve this growing and important population.
“Human rights is dependent on the dignity of people.”
HLT: Where are you in the treaty process?
Gallegos: We first led a working group for 14 years, which eventually came up with a series of recommendations, one of which is to create a convention in Geneva to begin the process of negotiation of a treaty to protect aging people worldwide. That’s where we are now — the beginning of the process of negotiating a treaty.
HLT: Every country has its own priorities, needs, and goals. What is it like working on a treaty of this magnitude, with so many competing interests?
Gallegos: As I mentioned, there are countries that don’t have laws to protect persons who are aging, and there are countries that have broadly magnificent laws to protect persons who are aging. So, to get to a treaty which is acceptable to 193 member states is a diplomatic negotiation, one that requires the input of a very active civil society, both in Geneva, and in the countries themselves. We have to create a worldwide network of organizations that deal with these issues to participate, to be sure that all the relevant voices are included. We have to engage every country and its peoples in the process.
HLT: What impact do you hope this effort has?
Gallegos: I think the convention on aging could help guide the process for the world’s coming demographic shift. We know that aging begins early — at age 30, according to some experts. So, if we know this, we should be able to start planning early, to tailor solutions, to use the technology we have to improve lives and ensure sustainability of our societies. I want to note here that technology is extremely important for people who are aging. It is important for communication, for enabling people to work longer, to monitor health, to assist people with living independently. We should be thinking about ways to deploy this technology more broadly for more people.
Ultimately, this convention is not the end. It’s the beginning. It will take some years to negotiate this treaty, and when it’s negotiated, the members will sign and ratify it. If we get to that point, we will have what has happened in disability, which is that disability was not being considered at the international level before 2000. Now, 25 years later, disability is at the frontline of inclusion. I think, just as people better understand the issue of persons with disabilities today, this convention could do the same for older people.
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