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Narratives of Aging and the Human Rights of Older Persons

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Abstract

Amid intensifying calls for an international convention on the rights of older persons, it is timely and important to examine the different narratives of aging that are informing and shaping debates on the human rights of older persons and to explore their implications. The article examines the dominant and competing narratives of aging emerging from public policy and gerontological studies, most notably, aging as a crisis or burden; aging as pathology; conceptions of successful, productive or active aging; and finally, aging and vulnerability. The implications of each of these narratives are analysed. The article then explores the extent to which these different narratives are taken up or challenged in advocacy for an international convention on the rights of older persons. The aim of the discussion is to make explicit and interrogate the narratives of aging which advocacy for a new convention on the rights of older persons may be perpetuating or challenging.

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Notes

  1. See, for example, Vienna International Plan of Action on Aging, adopted by the World Assembly on Aging, Vienna, 1982; United Nations Principles for Older Persons, GA Res. 46/91, 16 December 1991 (Annex); Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, Second World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid, 2002.

  2. These states argue that existing human rights norms are adequate: any issues are said to lie with their implementation. See, e.g. OEWGA 2014, 6.

  3. A-70. Adopted at the forty-fifth regular session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, held in Washington DC, 15 June 2015.

  4. Adopted at the 26th Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 31 January 2016.

  5. This is particularly true of a political economy approach which adopts a structural approach to aging.

  6. See, e.g. Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (2002) art. 2; UN GA Res. 67/139, 20 December 2012, preambular para. 7; Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa 2016, art. 1; Inter-American Convention on the Human Rights of Older Persons 2015, art. 2 (except where legislation provides for a different minimum age provided it is not over 65 years of age).

  7. Of course this assumes that those over 64 are not in paid employment.

  8. The resolution does, however, acknowledge the contributions older persons make in a ‘voluntary capacity’ (para. 5) and the need for ‘an adequate safety net for those for whom employment is an unrealistic option’ (para. 4).

  9. Criticisms of some formulations of an ethic of care include the potential for entrenching gender roles and unequal divisions of caring labour between men and women. Disability advocates have also argued that an ethic of care places the focus on the carer. See Herring 2013, 77–85.

  10. See also Herring who argues that while vulnerability is a universal condition some individuals and groups are particularly vulnerable due to a lack of social support and services. Herring 2016, 5–43.

  11. This section refers to ‘a human rights approach’ as a shorthand for examining issues surrounding aging within a human rights framework and is not intended to suggest that there is only one human rights approach to aging.

  12. As noted earlier, according to social role valorization theory, the ‘value’ attributed to a person’s or group’s social roles shapes how they are treated by others. To adopt the language of the theory, a new convention may enhance the ‘value’ accorded to the social roles of older persons by improving their social image (for example from ‘passive recipients’ to ‘active rights holders’) with all the benefits flowing from such enhanced social recognition (Wolfensberger 2000). There is said to be a strong correlation between a person’s or group’s social image and their real or perceived competencies and vice-versa. I do not, however, wish to overemphasize social role valorization theory here for its emphasis on enhancing how an individual or group is perceived in relation to given valued social roles risks taking as a given, rather than challenging, the social roles valued by a society such as those which feed into the ontologizing of productivity.

  13. See, e.g. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (New York, 18 December 1990, entered into force 1 July 2003, 2220 UNTS 3), art. 7. For further references see UNHCHR 2012, 5–6, note 6.

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Acknowledgements

With thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions and to Chris Watkin for insightful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

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    Alison Kesby

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Kesby, A. Narratives of Aging and the Human Rights of Older Persons. Hum Rights Rev 18, 371–393 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-017-0470-6

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