Abstract
The gift of longer life is arguably the most consequential legacy of the past century. Reaching older age has ceased to be the privilege of the few and has become the realistic expectation of the many. Currently, two people in the world reach their 60th birthday every second. By 2050, the 60-plus age group will constitute 30% of the populations in 64 countries—both developed and developing. At this time, they will form a global bloc of more than 2 billion people that will outnumber those under 15 years of age. This longevity revolution forces us to totally rethink traditional notions about ageing and older age. Active Ageing, as both a concept and a policy tool, grew from the 1990s out of this need for a radical shift in paradigm. It has continued to evolve in the context of new geographical settings, research data and shifting political and cultural landscapes ever since. The intention of Active Ageing is to reference a continued participation in meaningful engagements—social, economic, cultural, spiritual and civic—not simply physical activity or longer working lives. The Active Ageing goals are preventative, restorative and palliative—to address needs and desires across the fullest possible range of capacity and resources.
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Notes
- 1.
Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Pakistan host the largest refugee populations.
- 2.
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Botswana, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, USA.
- 3.
It should be noted that, over time, the term ‘disability threshold’ has largely been replaced with the term ‘dependency threshold’.
- 4.
The cited second major reason was “the practical recommendations [of the AFC Guide] were developed bottom up: by listening to the voices of older people round the world who said what they needed, and to service providers who have experience from the coal face.”
- 5.
ILC-BR is a think-tank on population ageing based in Rio de Janeiro that is part of a 16-country global alliance that has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
- 6.
The General Assembly established by resolution 65/182 on 21 December 2010 the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing, which meets annually, specifically on the international framework of the human rights of older persons. Further strengthening this debate, the Human Rights Council established in 2013 the mandate of the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, which was appointed in 2014. Already in 2011, civil society organizations joined forces by establishing the Global Alliance on the Rights of Older People (GAROP) to enhance civil society engagement.
- 7.
The OAS has, since 2015, a specific human rights instrument to protect the rights of older persons, the so-called Inter-American Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons.
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Kalache, A., Voelcher, I., Louvison, M. (2021). Active Aging and the Longevity Revolution. In: Rojo-Pérez, F., Fernández-Mayoralas, G. (eds) Handbook of Active Ageing and Quality of Life. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58031-5_3
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