On this International Day of Older Persons, I celebrate our older people and their resilience. I am grateful for their inspiration and courage.
Be it
- The older people, who walk with conviction using their canes and walkers, and showing us that setbacks do not define us.
- Or the courageous older woman, who despite potential retribution, spoke up against her squalid living conditions to claim her right to quality housing.
- Or my inspiring older colleagues from different corners of the globe, who in defiance of their personal challenges with aging, offer their time and experience, to make this a better world for you and me.
- And most of all, my mother, who fights for her dignity and self-determination each waking moment, as dementia relentlessly erodes her sense of being.
These are a few of the countless stories about our older people’s resilience.
To empower and support humanity’s unwavering pursuit of joy and purpose, I urge us to take action:
- First, let’s make our older people, in their varying forms and beings, visible; like the beautiful images we see through a kaleidoscope
- Second, design and deliver programs and services with a human rights-based approach; where older people are active participants in decision-making, free from discrimination, empowered to exercise their rights, and supported by legal systems when others fail to fulfill their obligations.
- Third, work with your governments to strengthen national laws and practices for the full enjoyment of human rights by older people in your country and ask your governments to actively participate in the work underway at United Nations towards an international legal human rights instrument for older people.
These three actions are important to older people today given the inequities we have witnessed through COVID and the recent humanitarian and climate crisis. They are equally important to our younger generations where the longevity narrative demands, more than ever, not only healthy but also active and fulfilled later years.
