Plan International - Girls' Rights Platform - Girls' rights are human rights: Positioning girls at the heart of the international agenda

3. Encourages Member States to address the situation of older persons in their voluntary national reviews presented at the high-level political forum on sustainable development;

24. Recommends that Member States enhance their capacity to more effectively collect age-disaggregated data, statistics and qualitative information, disaggregated also, when necessary, by other relevant factors, including se x and disability, in order to improve assessment of the situation of older persons, recognizes that the data revolution presents new opportunities and challenges for the use of new data to help with the measurement of progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular its aspects of relevance to older persons, and to ensure that no one is left behind, and in this regard recalls the establishment by the Statistical Commission of the Titchfield Group on ageing-related statistics and age-disaggregated data and the consideration of its work;

Noting with concern that women, persons with disabilities, older persons, children and youth are often disproportionately affected in natural disasters, and stressing the need to ensure that their specific needs are identified and addressed in emergency preparedness and response,

23. Recommends that Governments be inclusive in involving older persons and their organizations in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of policies and programmes that affect them, including through simple consultative mechanisms to co-research or co-design such policies and programmes with or by older persons and to take due account of involving those who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and are particularly vulnerable to high incidences of poverty and social exclusion;

Concerned about the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that may create additional vulnerabilities for older persons and affect their enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and recognizing that, in particular, older women often face multiple forms of discrimination resulting from gender inequality and are at greater risk of physical and psychological abuse and violence,

17. Also encourages Member States to develop and implement long-term care strategies, as well as to conduct research on good practices of care strategies, recognizing and supporting both paid and unpaid care work for the benefit of older persons, in accordance with the World Health Organization global strategy and action plan on ageing and health 2016–2020, 15 and to further promote long-term care as a positive social and economic investment and a source of employment expansion;

(f) Promoting consultation with and the participation of rural women and, as appropriate, girls, including those who are indigenous, those with disabilities and older women, through their organizations and networks, in the design, development and implementation of and follow-up to programmes and strategies for gender equality, the empowerment of women and rural development;

9. Reaffirms that social integration policies should seek to reduce inequalities, promote access to basic social services, quality education for all and health care, eliminate discrimination, increase the participation and integration of social groups, particularly young people, older persons and persons with disabilities, noting the role of sports in this regard, and address the challenges posed to social development by globalization and market-driven reforms in order for all people in all countries to benefit from globalization;

Recognizing that the prevalence of disabilities increases with age and that many older persons live with a disability,

Recognizing the particular vulnerability of women and children, as well as older persons and persons with disabilities, among refugees and displaced persons, including exposure to discrimination, sexual exploitation and abuse, physical abuse, violence and exploitation and the recruitment and use of children by parties to armed conflict in violation of applicable international law, and in this regard acknowledging the importance of preventing, responding to and addressing sexual and gender-based violence as well as violations and abuses committed against refugee, returnee and displaced children,

14. Encourages Member States to take into account the multidimensional nature of the vulnerability of older persons to poverty and economic insecurity, including through the promotion of good health, care and well-being, in their implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals at the national level;

36. Encourages Member States to provide services and support to older persons, including grandparents, who have assumed responsibility for children who were abandoned or whose parents are deceased, have migrated, have been displaced, including in the context of humanitarian emergencies, or are otherwise unable to care for their dependants;

Recognizing the essential contribution that older persons can continue to make to the functioning of societies and towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and recognizing also the importance of the full and effective enjoyment of their human rights,

49. Requests relevant entities of the United Nations system, including the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), to ensure that the situation of older women is mainstreamed and incorporated across their work and to support, in accordance with their respective mandates, the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular its aspects of relevance to older persons, including gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls through, inter alia, the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against women;

43. Encourages the international community and the relevant agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, to support national efforts to provide funding for research and data-collection initiatives on ageing, as appropriate, in order to better understand the challenges and opportunities presented by population ageing and to provide policymakers with more accurate and more specific information with regard to a gender perspective on ageing, as well as to include indicators that provide an evidence base for the equitable delivery and effective monitoring of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda 19 and national policymaking, as well as to gain a better understanding of how to promote ageing in a way that is not adversely affected by rapid urbanization and gentrification;

35. Urges Member States to strengthen intersectoral policy frameworks and institutional mechanisms, as appropriate, for the integrated management of th e prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, including health promotion, health-care services and social welfare services, in order to address the needs of older persons;

32. Urges Member States to develop, implement and evaluate policies and programmes that promote healthy and active ageing and the highest attainable standard of health and well-being for older persons and to develop health care for older persons as part of primary care in the existing health systems;

Recognizing the need to take into account the specific challenges linked to accessibility for older persons with disabilities, especially those faced by older women with disabilities,

4. Recognizes that the major challenges faced by older persons undermine their social, economic and cultural participation;

10. Recommends that Member States take into account the needs and requirements of older persons with disabilities in national development plans and national policies, including through the collection of data disaggregated by sex, age and disability, and encourage communities to develop targeted services for older persons with disabilities;

Deeply concerned by the increasing number and scale of humanitarian emergencies and their impact on older persons, particularly older women, reiterating the importance of giving due consideration to their specific needs, as well as their capacity to respond, and to the contributions of older persons to the planning and implementation of humanitarian assistance and efforts in disaster risk reduction, and noting with concern that the multiple forms of discrimination experienced by older women can be exacerbated during humanitarian emergencies and aggravate their potential vulnerabilities,

Deeply concerned that the situation of older persons in many parts of the world has been negatively affected by the world financial and economic crisis, and noting with concern the high incidence of poverty among them, particularly older single women,

5. Also encourages Member States to promote work-family balance as conducive to the well-being of children, youth, persons with disabilities and older persons and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, inter alia, through the improvement of working conditions for workers with family responsibilities, expanding flexible working arrangements, including through the use of new information and communications technologies, and providing and/or expanding leave arrangements, such as maternity leave and paternity leave, and adequate social security benefits for both women and men, taking appropriate steps to ensure that they are not discriminated against when availing themselves of such benefits and promoting men’s awareness and use of such opportunities, for their children’s developmental benefit and as a means of enabling women to increase their participation in the labour market;

(vii) Violations of economic, social and cultural rights, which have led to food insecurity, severe hunger, malnutrition, widespread health problems and other hardship for the population in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in particular for women, children, persons with disabilities, older persons and political prisoners;

Highlighting that the creative economy encourages creativity and innovation in attaining inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth and development, while facilitating life transitions and supporting women, youth, migrants and older persons, as well as empowering people in vulnerable situations,

19. Encourages Member States to strengthen their efforts to develop national capacities to address their national implementation priorities identified during the review and appraisal of the Madrid Plan of Action by considering and devising strategies that take into account the entirety of the human life course and foster intergenerational solidarity, the strengthening of institutional mechanisms, research, data collection and analysis and the training of necessary personnel in the field of ageing;

26. Recognizes the importance of strengthening intergenerational partnerships and solidarity, and in this regard calls upon Member States to promote opportunities for voluntary, constructive and regular interaction between young people and older generations in the family, the workplace and society at large;

38. Also calls upon Member States to take concrete measures, in accordance with national circumstances and, as appropriate, international humanitarian law, to further protect and assist older persons in emergency situations, and invites all States to promote a culture of protection, taking into account the particular ne eds of older persons, in accordance with the Madrid Plan of Action and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 18 by, inter alia, including older persons in disaster risk reduction and national and local emergency planning and response frameworks, collecting and using data disaggregated by age, sex and disability for policy design and implementation, as well as carrying out risk and vulnerabilities analyses of older women in humanitarian emergencies with a view to minimizing the risk to older women of all forms of violence in such emergencies;

82. Requests the Secretary-General to seek additional voluntary contributions for the digitization of important older United Nations documents, including by broadening the donor base, and to report thereon in the context of the report requested in paragraph 80 above;

25. Encourages States parties to existing international human rights instruments, where appropriate, to address the situation of older persons more explicitly in their reports, and encourages treaty body monitoring mechanisms and special procedure mandate holders to pay due regard to the situation of older persons in their dialogue with Member States, particularly in their concluding observations and reports, respectively;