Violence against older people is a global phenomenon says HelpAge International as activists call for a UN Convention on the Rights of Older People

HELPAGE INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE Embargoed until 00:01 15 June

Violence against older people is a global phenomenon says HelpAge International as activists call for a UN Convention on the Rights of Older People

Violence against older people is a global issue, says HelpAge International on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, (15 June), as activists in 40 countries call for a UN convention on the rights of older people to protect them and bring the perpetrators to justice.

• In Bangladesh, 88% of older people were mentally abused, 83% neglected, 54% economically abused and 40% physically abused. Of the physically abused, 54% were women and 45% were men. (1) See Notes to Editors
• In Mozambique, 17% of older women and 20% of older men surveyed had experienced physical abuse. (2)
• In Peru, 76% of older men and 61% of older women surveyed had experienced theft, deception, eviction or other actions involving money or property. (2)
• In Sweden, 30.8 % older men and women reported being victims of any type of abuse over the previous year. (3)

A review of 18 research surveys covering 15 countries over the last seven years showed that between 11-83% of older people reported being subjected to a variety of types of abuse. Men and women reported quite similar levels of violence and abuse in the four studies where the data was broken down by sex. But much more research data is needed on this issue, said HelpAge.

“These findings reaffirm the need for a convention on the rights of older people,” said Bridget Sleap, Senior Rights Policy Advisor at HelpAge International.

“A new convention would set standards prohibiting violence against older men and women that currently don’t exist in international human rights law. It would draw attention to this widespread violence that is currently being ignored or denied in many places.

“Very few older women and men report violence to the authorities or seek justice for the crimes committed against them. A new convention would require governments to change their national legislation so that it prohibits this kind of violence and provides access to justice to those older people subjected to it,” added Sleap.

The call for a new UN convention

Older rights activists taking part in the Age Demands Action for Rights campaign, will be urging their national governments to insist on a new UN convention on the rights of older people and ask that their leaders attend the UN Open-ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA) when it meets in New York this July.

“Globally older peoples face several problems like abuse, exploitation and neglect. To protect the rights of older people around the globe, we need a UN convention, which will create pressure on governments to think about our rights,” said Osman Ghani, 67, from Bangladesh.

Violence against older people is not confined to one country or one part of the world. In Ireland, Age Action reported a harrowing tale of a woman accompanying her vulnerable friend home from hospital, only to have her friend physically and verbally attacked by her own two children when they reached home.

However, preventative work is taking place. In Mozambique, a programme working to reduce violence against older women has worked. It reported reductions of 11.3% in cases of abandonment of older people by their relatives, 7.6% of physical abuse and a 6.9% decrease in verbal abuse from baseline study levels. Local radio stations were involved in broadcasting plays and discussions about violence against older people, helping to raise levels of awareness and how to deal with it.

One of the women involved, Rita, from Boane district, Maputo province said: “Things have improved since the beginning of the project. Verbal and physical abuse by young people has reduced. The audience that participated in discussions after the broadcasting of the plays on community radio all denounced violence against older women which showed that the message was getting through to people.”

Another woman, Faustina, also from Boane district, said: “Bringing older women together to discuss issues of violence and to sensitize others has made us feel different. We are more involved and are free to give suggestion on how to reduce violence.”

Salvador Muchanga, a community leader in the Khongolote in Matola, who took part in the programme said: “The information on the cases of abuse against older people in our community is very important to reduce the level of violence and also to build the relationship between older people and other age groups.”

A UN convention would help scale up this type of programme. Sign the Age Demands Action petition for a new UN convention on the rights of older people here: http://bit.ly/pSpask

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors

1.World Elder Abuse Awareness Day happens each year on 15 June.

It represents the one day in the year when the whole world voices its opposition to the abuse and suffering inflicted on some of our older generation. Elder Abuse is a global social issue affecting the Health and Human Rights of millions of older people, and an issue deserving the attention of the international community. http://www.un.org/en/events/elderabuse/

2. Eighteen research surveys covering fifteen countries looked at how many older people reported being abused. 

The research sample sizes were small and so we cannot draw inferences about the prevalence across the population as a whole but we can see multiple forms of violence being experienced by older people across different social and cultural contexts.