On April 3, 2025, United Nations member states adopted a historic resolution during a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, establishing a new intergovernmental working group tasked with drafting an international legally binding instrument (a UN convention) on the human rights of older persons. This important step marks the culmination of years of advocacy and campaigning by older persons, civil society, and other stakeholders around the world, including the Red Cross of Serbia. Evidence gathered over the years has shown that a convention is the best solution to address the gaps and fragmentation in the international human rights system.

Older persons around the world face daily violations of their human rights. These include violence and abuse, age-based discrimination, social, economic, and political exclusion, denial of access to care and support services, inadequate social security, exclusion from climate change responses, and harm during armed conflicts.

The new UN convention will have a positive impact on the lives of older persons globally today, as well as on all of us as we age in the future. It will provide greater clarity and essential guidance to states on how to better promote and protect the rights of older persons. It will also help eliminate ageism and age-based discrimination, and empower older persons to seek legal protection when their rights are violated. This critical political decision brings us one step closer to realizing that goal.

Years of advocacy by older persons and civil society organizations, particularly the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People (GAROP), led to this historic UN decision. Established in 2011, the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People (GAROP) was created in response to the need to strengthen the rights and voices of older persons around the world. Today, GAROP is a network of more than 400 members worldwide, united in their work to advance and promote the rights of older persons. Nataša Todorović, an expert advisor from the Red Cross of Serbia, serves on GAROP’s Steering Committee as an expert and volunteer.

🔗 Rezolucija A/HRC/58/L.24/Rev.1 – UN Human Rights Council

The Convention on the Rights of Older Persons will close existing protection gaps by obligating countries around the world to take concrete actions. It will contribute to:

✔️ The legal prohibition of age-based discrimination

✔️ The promotion of dignity and autonomy

✔️ The inclusion of older persons in decision-making

✔️ Building a #World4AllAges

The Government of the Republic of Serbia co-sponsored this historic resolution, bringing us closer to achieving equal rights in older age.