Friday, August 31, 2012

Age Friendly Cities and the Law

Age friendly Cities is an international and a global initiative based on WHO's project.
Here is a short description of the project cited from the WHO web-site:
http://www.who.int/ageing/age_friendly_cities/en/

WHO Age-friendly Environments Programme

Background

In 2008, for the first time in history, the majority of the world's population lived in cities. Urban populations will continue to grow in the future. It is estimated that around 3 out of every 5 people will live in an urban area by 2030.
At the same time, as cities around the world are growing, their residents are growing older. The proportion of the global population aged 60 will double from 11% in 2006 to 22% by 2050.
Making cities and communities age-friendly is one of the most effective local policy approaches for responding to demographic ageing. The physical and social environments are key determinants of whether people can remain healthy, independent and autonomous long into their old age.
Older persons play a crucial role in their communities - they engage in paid or volunteering work, transmit experience and knowledge, and help their families with caring responsibilities. These contributions can only be ensured if they enjoy good health and if societies address their needs.

About the WHO Age-friendly Environments Programme

The WHO Age-friendly Environments Programme is an international effort to address the environmental and social factors that contribute to active and healthy ageing.
The Programme helps cities and communities become more supportive of older people by addressing their needs across eight dimensions: the built environment, transport, housing, social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication, and community support and health services.

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The question is how to connect the project with elder law?
The answer can be found in a serious of legal articles which argue that one can use the local arena to promote the rights of older persons. See for example the articles below:

http://www.wmitchell.edu/lawreview/Volume37/documents/Doron.pdf

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=6614004


Saturday, August 18, 2012

UN 3rd Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing

Third working session of the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing for the purpose of strengthening the protection of the human rights of older persons
The third session of the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing will be held from Tuesday, 21, to Friday, 24 August 2012, in Conference Room 2 (NLB) at UN headquarters. Background information including documents from the UN and NGOs as well as reference material and modalities of the meeting are available online: http://social.un.org/ageing-working-group/thirdsession.shtml