201 / 536
187
CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ TOWARDS A NEW CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTON OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS
to old-age benefits assessed in light of Article 3 (insufficiency of old-age pensions to
maintain adequate standard of living resulting in inhuman and degrading treatment)
63
and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (reduction of old-age pensions as an interference
with the right to property).
64
The only special instrument focused on older persons
that has been adopted within the Council of Europe is the 2004
Recommendation of
the Committee of Ministers on the promotion of human rights of older persons
, which,
however, is non-binding in nature.
65
Although we started the regional overview in Europe, it would be more appropriate
to place the Americas at the top. It is so not only, and not so much, because there
are provisions relating to older persons in human rights instruments adopted within
the Organization of American States (Article 17 of the 1988
Protocol to the American
Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
,
entitled Protection of the Elderly) and the Andean Community (Articles 46 and 47
of the 2002
Andean Charter for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
, section
on Rights of Older Adults). The main reason is that on 15 June 2015, the very
first international instrument relating specifically and exclusively to older persons,
the
Inter-American Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons
was
adopted in Washington. The purpose of the Convention is
“to promote, protect and
ensure the recognition and the full enjoyment and exercise, on an equal basis, of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms of older persons, in order to contribute to their full
inclusion, integration, and participation in society”
[Article 1(1)]. An older person is
defined as a
“person aged 60 or older, except where legislation has determined a minimum
age that is lesser or greater, provided that it is not over 65 years”
(Article 2).
The Convention relies on a set of general principles set in Article 3 which
encompass
inter alia
the recognition of older persons and their role in the society,
the dignity of older persons, equality and non-discrimination, security in all its
different meanings, self-fulfilment or solidarity. These principles are concretized in
quite a lengthy catalogue of human rights of older persons, which includes both civil
and political and economic, social and cultural rights. States undertake to respect
and promote these rights through a series of negative and positive measures and to
raise awareness about them in society. The Convention establishes a new Committee
of Experts, which should consider periodic reports by States. It also opens the way
for individual petitions to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. So far
the Convention has not entered into force, awaiting two ratifications. At the time of
63
See, for instance, ECtHR,
Larioshina v. Russia,
Application No. 56869/00, 23 April 2002 (application
declared manifestly ill-founded); and
Budina v. Russia,
Application No. 45603/05, 18 June 2009
(application declared manifestly ill-founded).
64
See, for instance, ECtHR,
Da Conceição Mateus and Santos Januário v. Portugal,
Applications
No. 62235/12 and 57725/12, 8 October 2012 (applications declared manifestly ill-founded).
65
Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)2 to member states on the promotion of human rights of older persons
,
19 February 2014.