Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty

IN FOCUS

Social Protection for Older Persons

In 2010, the expert intends to study the role that social protection systems play in reducing extreme poverty and contributing to the realization of human rights of older persons. She will look in particular at income security programmes such as old age non contributory pensions. She will present her findings in her to the Human Rights Council in June 2010.

The world population is ageing, to the point that the number of persons over 60 years of age is likely to increase by 200 percent by 2050. The phenomenon of poverty in old age is increasingly catching the attention of analysts and policy-makers. Yet, knowledge of its nature, gravity, and consequences both for older persons and for members of their households are not yet fully appreciated. The reviews of the Madrid World Assembly on Ageing and of the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals open the way for an important opportunity to discuss ways and means to tackle poverty in old age.

The capacity of older persons to maintain an adequate level of income security depends on their health status, as they are more vulnerable to ailments or chronic diseases. Older persons require, often more accutely than others, access to social services and essential medicines, adequate food and nutrition, safe access to water and sanitation. In the meantime, care and support by families and communities cannot be taken for grated as it has been in the past, to ensure that these growing needs are met. Ageing poses challenges to States in the development policies that take into account all aspects of the quality of life of older persons, not only that of income security.

Human rights call for increased access to social security; they also inform how the expansion of social security should be carried out.

Social protection and old age pensions

For the purpose of this study

• Social protection schemes aim to enable people to respond to various contingencies and manage levels of risk that are deemed unacceptable by society. They aim to offset the absence or substantial reduction of income from work, provide assistance for families with children, provide people with health care, housing, water and sanitation, education or social work. They are cash or in-kind benefits, ranging from pensions to user fee exemptions or subsidised services.
  
• Old age pensions consist of cash benefits received by persons above a given age whether or not additional criteria are tied to receiving the benefits. Non-contributory pensions, also known as social pensions in some countries, are programmes that do not require prior compulsory contributions from beneficiaries, employers or the State for the payments to be made.
  

Expert Meeting

An expert meeting gathering professionals and academics working in the areas of development, ageing and human rights will contribute to the preparation of the expert's report. To be convened in the first trimester of 2010, the meeting will gather representatives from different regions, including professionals involved in the implementation of old age pensions.