Our world is rapidly aging, with medical and public health advancements extending lifespans without necessarily enhancing the quality of those additional years. Individuals in their later years aspire to preserve dignity, maintain autonomy and independence, foster social inclusion, uphold justice and equality, be respected for their identity, and pursue good health, security, purpose and engagement throughout their lives. Unfortunately, ageism is pervasive and has a significant negative impact on the lives of older individuals. Ageism is the root source of severe violations of the human rights of older persons, incontrovertibly uncovered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ageism not only damages global health and harms the world’s economy, but also poses a major barrier for older persons everywhere, especially in preventing them from receiving the human rights-based care and support they deserve. This approach to health specifically aims at realizing the right to health and other health-related human rights. These rights translate as social determinants of health and can be integrated into clinical practice. Their implementation is mainly dependent of political will and fair distribution of money, power and resources. Planning health care and support for older persons should be guided by human rights standards and principles with final goal of the empowerment of rights-holders to effectively claim their health rights.

Setting the scene: International Human Rights, Mental Health and Older persons

We all are, in principle, covered by the international human rights system. However, the current international human rights framework does neither include explicit guarantee against ageism, nor explicit obligation on States to take active measures to eliminate ageism and its discriminatory consequences. Older persons are very rarely mentioned in human rights treaties. All rights are equally important as set out in the International Bill of Human Rights (Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights; and the International Covenant for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights) and all international human rights treaties. Everyone, whoever and wherever they are, has an inherent right to the highest attainable standard of health, including the right to available, accessible, acceptable and affordable good quality care; and the right to liberty, independence and inclusion in the community. Unfortunately, older people with mental health conditions or cognitive decline experience a wide range of human rights violations. Coercive practices, social exclusion and discrimination are still too prevalent compounded by the lack of basic rights such as food and adequate housing. This presentation will discuss how the human rights legal framework can be applied to mental health care and support while advocating for better protection of the human rights of older persons through a dedicated UN Convention.