Date: 18Nov 2015

The world’s population is ageing, and the consequences of this will be felt even more acutely in the coming decades. Even now, ageism and shortfalls in the fulfilment of the human rights of older persons are widespread throughout the world. There is currently a campaign which originated among Latin American states and but which now enjoys broader support including among civil society groups, urging the adoption of a new United Nations convention on promoting and protecting the rights of older persons. Parallels have been drawn with the importance and impact of the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a treaty which would overlap with any new convention and which is likely to form a model for any new convention on older persons. At present member States of the United Nations are divided over whether such a treaty is necessary or desirable; we are now at a political impasse.

This presentation will explore some of the arguments for and against such a convention, and raise some of the conceptual and definitional issues that would need to be addressed in the formulation of such an instrument.

Andrew Byrnes is Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, where he is also Chair of the Australian Human Rights Centre based in the UNSW Law School. Previously, he was Professor of Law at the Australian National University (2001- 2005) and prior to that was Associate Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong (1989-2001), where he was Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law (and during which time he was closely involved in the drafting of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and equal opportunities legislation). He teaches and writes in the fields of public international law, human rights, and international criminal/humanitarian law. His work includes publications on gender and human rights, national human rights institutions, economic and social rights, peoples’ tribunals, and the incorporation of human rights in domestic law. He served as President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law from 2009 to 2013. From November 2012 until September 2014 he was external legal adviser to the Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.