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NIHR Pparticipates in a Panel Discussion on the Occasion of the International Day of Older Persons

Within the framework of the celebration of the International Day of Older Persons 2022, the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) has participated in a panel discussion entitled “Older Persons in the Arab World: Current Reality and Prospects for Protection and Empowerment”, which was held via video conference and organised by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)’s Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (ROMENA) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

During its participation, the NIHR reviewed the steps taken by the Kingdom of Bahrain to protect and promote the rights of older persons, from the enactment of national legislation that protects the rights of the elderly, to the development of national strategies, plans and initiatives that contributed to improving the quality of life of the elderly and their effective and continuous participation in society and raising awareness of the rights of this group, presenting the practical reality of the elderly in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the services and facilities provided to them.

The penal discussion included a group of experts in the field of aging, representatives of the OHCHR and a number of national human rights institutions, trade unions and civil society institutions in the Arab world, for the purpose of reviewing international frameworks on human rights for the elderly, shedding light on the reality of this group, especially women in the Arab countries, presenting some experiences of international human rights mechanisms and discussing ways to advance the rights of the elderly, especially women.

The panel discussion concluded with the need to integrate the issues of the elderly in the policy-making process in all countries of the world, especially the Arab countries, with the aim to make a transformation into societies that embrace all age groups, and protect the rights of the elderly and enable them to contribute constructively to the development process, while intensifying efforts to raise awareness of the rights of the elderly and support initiatives taken by civil society institutions in this field, in addition to seeking a special agreement on the rights of the elderly, similar to the other rights for which agreements have been made, and working on issuing an Arab declaration aimed at protecting the rights of this group that served the society in their youth.