February 23, 2010
New United Nations Treaty Body Proposed
As reported recently by the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, a federation of non-governmental organizations have proposed a new human rights treaty and special rapporteur focusing on aging and the elderly that, if implemented, would force additional reporting and enforcement requirements on States already burdened by the requirements demanded under the nine existing international human rights treaties.
During the 48th Session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development, held February 3-12 in New York, a group led by the AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons), HelpAge International, and the International Federation on Ageing offered a statement advocating the establishment and adoption of an international convention for the rights of older persons and an independent body to monitor its enforcement.
According to the group’s statement, a new convention is necessary because the “human rights standards that protect older people’s rights are scattered throughout various international and regional conventions.” Moreover, a convention would “improve accountability and provide a framework for policy and decision-making [, measures that are] essential for achieving social integration and building societies for all that respect everyone’s rights.”
The statement adds that a special rapporteur is needed to “advise and support Member States on the better implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action.” The Madrid Plan of Action, short for the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, 2002, is a comprehensive set of goals and objectives adopted by the United Nations Second World Assembly on Ageing in 2002 to promote “changes in attitudes, policies and practices at all levels in all sectors so that the enormous potential of ageing in the twenty-first century may be fulfilled.”
A new convention on ageing, like other human rights treaties, is, on the surface, a positive development, particularly as a large portion of the world’s population lives longer through advanced medicine and healthcare. However, as with the existing human rights conventions, a new convention would undoubtedly result in the creation of yet another human rights treaty body committee with the power to review implementation of the convention’s provisions at the national level of individual Member States.
The human rights treaty body committees and their periodic review sessions often serve simply as forums where international and non-governmental organizations attempt to influence and enforce social and economic policies at the national level that comply with their various human rights agendas. Unfortunately, too often Members States cave to the enormous collective pressure generated by these groups, eventually substituting recommended policies from committee members and non-governmental organization for organic, democratically-produced legislation. In the process, Member States relinquish their national sovereignty to non-state actors. A new convention on ageing, coupled with yet another treaty body committee with the power to monitor its implementation and influence domestic policy, would only seem to accelerate this.
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