Age discrimination is widespread in European societies and it can affect people at all stages of life, in employment as well as in other spheres. Equinet’s Deputy Director Tamás Kádár is attending the 10th session of the UN Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing in New York from 15-18 April to share the experience of equality bodies in promoting equality for and fighting discrimination against older persons.
The Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing was established by the General Assembly by resolution 65/182 on 21 December 2010. The working group will consider the existing international framework of the human rights of older persons and identify possible gaps and how best to address them, including by considering, as appropriate, the feasibility of further instruments and measures.
Together with the European Commission, Age Platform Europe, HelpAge International and the World Health Organisation, Equinet is co-organising a side-event on 17 April which aims to take stock and sketch the way towards a new paradigm of older age 50 years after the first conceptualisation of ageism. See the programme here.
During the side event, Kádár will provide existing evidence of ageism across Europe, as identified in our recent publication ’Fighting Discrimination on the Ground of Age’. The potential of equality bodies to tackle age discrimination will be outlined, as well as the key issues identified by equality bodies in their work on this topic. Discrimination cases in employment, goods and services, housing and health and family issues will be included to highlight the main legal issues that equality bodies currently face. See the presentation here.
Follow the discussions on Twitter #OEWG10 #AgeingEqual #Ageism, and particularly via @AGE_PlatformEU, who will be tweeting from the Side Event directly.