The States Parties undertake to: a) provide protection to elderly women and take specific measures commensurate with their physical, economic and social needs as well as their access to employment and professional training;

The States Parties undertake to: b) ensure the right of elderly women to freedom from violence, including sexual abuse, discrimination based on age and the right to be treated with dignity.

Younger children are particularly concerned about risks related to the online content they may encounter. As they get older, they become more concerned by contact and conduct risks linked to the use of social networking sites. Adolescents may face unusually high risks of exposure to harmful material and cyberbullying. A considerable proportion of the victims of online sexual abuse are children under the age of 12.

Younger children are at high risk of violence, especially when they are placed in residential care. They are heavily dependent on caregivers for their development and well-being, and when neglected, injured or abused, they have less ability to speak up and seek support. If they are surrounded by violence and stress, they can suffer long-lasting emotional trauma and harm to their health, including irreversible damage to brain development.

Older children are equally active, using ICTs to prepare schoolwork, search for information, socialize with friends, play games, watch the news and video clips online, and to communicate, including through e-mail and instant messaging.

The Special Rapporteur has observed that certain groups within minority communities, such as minority women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, experience unique challenges and multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination emanating from their status as members of minorities and their specific condition or situation. The Special Rapporteur encourages further research to fully understand their situation and calls for targeted actions to address their particular challenges.

Minority communities are not homogenous and it is important to understand the challenges facing those, including women, children and the elderly, whose needs, perceptions and expectations may vary. Older people, who may be first-generation immigrants, may have stronger linguistic and cultural ties than young people who have been brought up and educated in their country of residence. They may face greater challenges in learning and adapting to the national language and require culturally sensitive, affordable and accessible assistance.

The Convention challenges traditional approaches to care and has the potential to redress the legacy of disempowerment and paternalism. Furthermore, the notion of support in the Convention also has the potential to override traditional understandings of care and assistance for other groups, such as older persons and children. The Convention restores the importance of the "human being" in the human rights discourse by emphasizing the individual and social aspects of the human experience. These innovations can and should be incorporated into the implementation of all existing human rights instruments.

As a foundation for any national social protection system, these floors must ensure, at a minimum, access to essential health care (including maternity care) and to a basic level of income security for (a) children - including access to food, education, care and other necessary goods and services; (b) persons of active age who are unable to earn sufficient income, including persons with disabilities; and (c) older persons. The ILO recommendation concerning national floors of social protection, 2012 (No. 202) identifies as priority areas of attention the prevention and alleviation of poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion, and sets forth guidelines for implementing and monitoring national strategies that are participatory, country-led, sustainable and regularly reviewed. It also provides guidance to States on progressively providing higher levels of protection to as many people as possible and as soon as possible, reflecting States' economic and fiscal capacities. The recommendation also recognizes the principles of non-discrimination, gender equality and responsiveness to specific needs, and emphasizes that any initiative should support people with special needs and other potentially disadvantaged groups.

Most social protection systems comprise contributory and non-contributory programmes, which can include universal benefit schemes, social insurance, social assistance and public employment programmes. Benefits can include child and family benefits, sickness and health-care benefits, disability benefits, old age and survivor benefits, employment injury benefits, unemployment benefits and employment guarantees, maternity benefits, income support and other benefits in cash and in kind. Social protection can be provided in many ways, with States establishing programmes according to their particular context and historical background.

While the extra cost of disability varies greatly depending on the availability and financial accessibility of goods and services, researchers have calculated that it can amount to almost 50 per cent of an individual's income. A recent study on older persons with disabilities estimates that, on average, disability costs are approximately 65 per cent higher than the net weekly pre-disability household income. In addition, the economic cost of living with a disability includes foregone benefits or opportunity costs (e.g., lost income of individuals with disabilities or of family members who cannot work, or who work less, if the household includes one or more persons with disabilities), the impact of which depends on many factors, including the type of impairment, the household's socioeconomic status, the individual's work status and the policy context (e.g., the existence of disability benefits).

Persons with disabilities who have not acquired entitlements to a contributory pension during their working lives face considerable difficulties in maintaining an adequate level of income security towards the end of their lives, when adequate non-contributory pensions are not available. Moreover, as they are often less likely to have a partner or to marry, intra-family support as an additional source of income security is often insufficient and unreliable. Therefore, social protection programmes are necessary to guarantee income security for older persons with disabilities and to provide support services. As disability rates are considerably higher among older persons, there is a growing demand for health and social care and support services to enable them to continue living independently and with dignity.

[The Special Rapporteur will be guided by the following overarching considerations in all aspects of her work:] Inclusiveness. The Special Rapporteur will work in an inclusive manner, aiming to ensure that the needs and concerns of persons with all different kinds of impairment are taken into equal consideration and that her work is age-sensitive, paying special attention to children, adolescents and older persons with disabilities. She will be attentive to the specific situation of persons with disabilities who may be subject to multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination on the basis of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic, indigenous or social origin, property, birth, age or other status, and the multiple layers of barriers that these intersections may create. She will also work across social and economic groups and layers and do her utmost to ensure that no one is left behind in her deliberations.

Participation is a core human rights principle, as well as a basic condition of democratic societies. Participation allows individuals to play a central role in their own development, as well as in the development of their communities. People have a right to participate in decisions that affect their lives, including those concerning their rights. The active and informed participation of different groups, including women, children, older persons, indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities, is not only consistent with but is also a requisite of a human rights-based approach. It ensures active citizenship, good governance and social accountability.

The Special Rapporteur has also taken first steps towards collaborating with other special procedures mandate holders. Initial efforts of collaboration have included a joint statement made on Human Rights Day, on 10 December 2014, with other special procedures mandate holders on climate change and human rights, and joined efforts regarding issues of common concern with the mandate holders on the right to food, older persons and the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

Persons with disabilities constitute 15 per cent of the world population, approximately one billion people. Many of them require different forms of support, including for basic day-to-day activities such as getting up, bathing, dressing and eating. The sustained ageing of the global population, particularly in high-income countries, has also had a substantial impact on the demand for disability-related support, as older persons tend to be overrepresented in the disability community. Other sociopolitical factors such as conflict and migration increase the demand for support, as support networks tend to fall apart in such situations.

Fifth, the eligibility criteria of social protection programmes should not include factors that could directly or indirectly exclude persons with disabilities. For instance, in many countries child nutrition programmes operate only at childcare centres and schools. Since children with disabilities have fewer opportunities to attend school, many of them lack access to nutrition programmes. Older persons with disabilities are also usually excluded from receiving disability benefits owing programmes are targeted towards the poor. Social protection programmes target persons with disabilities either as a separate group through disability-specific programmes; by explicitly incorporating them within the targeting criteria of mainstream programmes; or by including them within groups at risk of poverty. Programmes can also either target all persons with disabilities, only certain age groups, or focus on a particular level or type of impairment. to their age, yet pensions and other available benefits may not fully address disability-related needs. Therefore, States must take into account the situation of persons with disabilities when targeting specific age groups.

Social protection systems and programmes can only be effective if they address the specific needs of persons with disabilities throughout their life cycle: childhood, adolescence, working age and old age. This approach is aimed at removing existing barriers to accessing age-based benefits and at creating uninterrupted interventions and a smooth transition from one age group to another with regard to the receipt of benefits.

Older persons with disabilities also have difficulties in accessing support arrangements for daily life, such as personal assistance, assisted living arrangements and palliative care. While families are the most common source of support for older persons with disabilities in most countries, there is an increasing demand for institutional care, especially from family members and other informal supporters of persons with dementia, which is increasing the risk of institutionalization among older persons with disabilities. Importantly, older women with disabilities are more likely to be institutionalized owing to the different life expectancies of men and women. The provision of in-home support services, including personal assistance and help with household chores, can avoid institutionalization and improve the quality of life of older persons by enabling them to stay at home (see A/HRC/30/43, para. 72).

Under paragraph 16 (d) of Human Rights Council resolution 32/11, the mandate holder is tasked with giving special consideration to the human rights of internally displaced women and children, and of other groups with special needs, such as older persons, persons with disabilities and severely traumatized individuals, and to their particular assistance, protection and development needs. The Special Rapporteur will therefore dedicate a thematic report to the needs and protection issues facing internally displaced children, with a view to bringing renewed attention to their plight and in order to seek innovative approaches, concrete actions, and new commitments to their protection in displacement-affected countries.

Consultation, participation and information provision activities must engage widely with internally displaced persons, including women and female heads of households, young people, older persons and persons with disabilities. In-depth assessments, profiling and consultations help to reveal vulnerabilities, capacities and obstacles, essential to providing appropriate responses and durable solutions. Gathering data on those outside of camps has also proven extremely difficult, and there is a need to find creative solutions to ensure that they do not fall through protection and support nets. The Special Rapporteur's report on the issue to the Human Rights Council in 2012 notably focuses on addressing the causes of neglect of internally displaced persons outside camps through data collection.

Article 9 (2) of the Convention requires States to provide special protection and assistance to internally displaced persons with special needs, including separated and unaccompanied children, female heads of household, expectant mothers, mothers with young children, persons with disabilities and older persons, and to take measures for family tracing and reunification.

Despite these challenges, host communities are often the key to ensuring essential assistance services to IDPs, to the work of humanitarian organizations, and to finding durable solutions. They are most often the "first responders" to a crisis, and may welcome, support and assist IDPs upon their arrival. But as displacement becomes protracted, tensions can often result due to competition over scarce resources, employment opportunities, or from underlying religious, ethnic, cultural or other differences - frequently related to or exacerbated by the conflict causing the displacement in the first place. Without IDP frameworks and institutions in place to respond to the particular context and needs of IDPs living within these communities, these tensions and competition over resources and services will usually have a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable IDP groups, such as female-headed households, children and older persons, and leave them exposed to human rights violations, exploitation and poverty.

[The Special Rapporteur also recommends that States Members of the African Union:] Establish or strengthen the mechanisms promoting the engagement and participation of local authorities, communities, civil society organizations and the private sector in issues relating to internal displacement; community participation should involve those who are most vulnerable; in particular, potentially vulnerable groups, such as women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities, should be fully included in disaster prevention, response planning and implementation to ensure that their specific needs are addressed;

Particular challenges face some people within internally displaced populations, including older persons, persons with disabilities, unaccompanied minors, or members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender community. Women are made particularly vulnerable by displacement, including to sexual or gender-based violence and other human rights violations, and consequently require specific protection measures. A key protection element is disaggregated data to provide an evidence base to build a profile of internally displaced persons and assess their needs according to their circumstances. Such data is often lacking and this gap reinforces the significance of the work carried out by bodies such as the Joint Internally Displaced Person Profiling Service (JIPS; see www.jips.org/en/home).

Recognition of internally displaced persons as holders of civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights is crucial. A human rights-based approach to internal displacement and humanitarian and development assistance to such persons requires assessments of their human rights on the basis of information that goes beyond basic displacement statistics and recognizes the unique circumstances, challenges and requirements of each individual, including women, older persons, persons with disabilities, minorities and others. It also requires a deeper level of engagement and consultation with internally displaced persons, allowing a more detailed understanding of needs, concerns and intentions and demonstrating respect for the human agency of those persons, as partners in a process of achieving solutions, rather than passive beneficiaries.

The Human Rights Council resolution 14/6 extending this mandate, requests the Special Rapporteur to "integrate a gender perspective throughout the work of the mandate, and to give special consideration to the human rights of internally displaced women and children, as well as of other groups with special needs, such as older persons, persons with disabilities and severely traumatized individuals affected by internal displacement, and their particular assistance, protection and development needs". As part of carrying out this aspect of the mandate, a special focus will be given to exploring more specifically the situation of internally displaced women and girls, including in various types of internal displacement situations.

Internally displaced persons must have a greater say and role in shaping the nature of assistance and support that they receive and the solutions targeted at them. The Special Rapporteur has found that the common message from internally displaced persons is that they are deprived of their dignity, have little hope and feel that nobody is listening to them, let alone consulting them. Meaningful consultation and participation of internally displaced persons guarantee the durability and legitimacy of solutions and help to re-establish dignity and hope. The voices and views of displaced women, older persons, youth and those with disabilities for example, must be given equal weight to ensure that solutions are appropriate and meet the needs of all.

Detention can be particularly damaging to vulnerable categories of migrants, including victims of torture, unaccompanied older persons, persons with a mental or physical disability, and persons living with HIV/AIDS. The UNHCR guidelines provide that, given the very negative effects of detention on the psychological well-being of those detained, active consideration of possible alternatives should precede any order to detain asylum-seekers belonging to vulnerable categories. The Special Rapporteur is of the opinion that the same principle should apply to vulnerable migrants. In the event that individuals falling within these categories are detained, it is advisable that this should only be on the certification of a qualified medical practitioner that detention will not adversely affect their health and well-being. In addition, there must be regular follow up and support by skilled personnel. They must also have access to adequate health services, medication and counselling.

The Special Rapporteur encourages the establishment and implementation of institutionalized services and programmes to provide comprehensive support and protection to persons arriving in mixed migratory flows, especially women, children and the elderly, including means to detect those who are in need of international protection. Protection services should include access to humanitarian assistance in the first instance, including adequate food and water, and access to health services, legal advice and effective asylum procedures. Longer term needs should include access to durable solutions in the case of persons in need of international protection and support for return to the community of origin for those people who are deemed able to return with no risk to their human rights.