Join Kim Samuel & Panelists for UN Side Event Discussion on Older People’s Rights – Monday, March 29

On Monday, March 29 at 1:15 PM (EDT), Kim Samuel and her fellow panelists discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed ways in which current human rights instruments fall short in identifying and protecting older people’s rights.

The panel considered how belonging and social connectedness play a crucial twofold role in relation to a convention on the rights of older persons. First, the basic idea that all people have a fundamental right to belong – to be fully accepted and valued within the human community – forms part of the underlying justification for establishing a convention on the rights of older people. Second, such a convention must give due attention to specific belonging-related rights, including older persons’ rights to live independently and be included in the community and to be associated, assemble, and participate in culture and society more broadly, to be fully accepted by their community, and to have the resources they need to contribute to that community.

Alongside Kim Samuel, panelists included Dr. Kimberley Brownlee, Canada Research Chair in Ethics and Political & Social Philosophy for the University of British Columbia, Dr. Sharifah Sekalala, Associate Professor, Global Health Law at the University of Warwick and Dr. Henry Shue, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford with the discussion being moderated by Bridget Sleap, Senior Rights Policy Advisor, HelpAge International.

This COVID-19 and Older People’s Rights: Social Connectedness and Belonging panel discussion was a side event at the 11^th session of the UN open-ended working group on ageing.

More information on the panel discussion here.