Human Wrongs Watch
15 June 2014 – Warning that elderly people in all societies can be vulnerable to physical, psychological and financial abuse, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today appealed to the international community to adopt measures to address all aspects of this routinely under-acknowledged public health, social and human rights issue.*
Elderly woman refugee. Photo: UNCHR
The global population of people aged 60 years and older is expected to more than double, from 542 million in 1995 to about 1.2 billion in 2025.
Ban made this call on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, which aims annually to spotlight the global social issues affecting elderly people.
The commemoration also brings the attention of the international community on the safeguarding of older human beings from mistreatment and suffering. In his message on the Day, the UN chief emphasized the particularly high vulnerability of elderly women to widespread discriminatory attitudes and practices.
Rising Mistreatment, Physical Injuries, Psychological Consequences
In countries which are witnessing a long-term process of aging, the mistreatment towards older people is likely to rise further.
Those abuses towards the elderly could generate physical injuries and long-lasting psychological consequences.
Ill-treatment is likely to occur with little recognition and could often be identified as private matters by many societies across the world.
It is estimated that between four and six percent of older persons worldwide have suffered from some forms of abuse.
However, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested that there is often a lack of acknowledgment regarding the abuses and violence that many older persons suffer on a daily basis.
“I call on Member States to enact and enforce stronger laws and strategies to address all aspects of this under-acknowledged social, public health and human rights issue” the Secretary-General said, underlining also how all human beings are all born with the right to age with dignity, without being victim of any violence, nor abuse.
*Source: UN Release.
Read also:
Elderly Women, Victims of Sexual Violence, Property Grabbing, Torture
More Elderly Than Children … Within Just Five Years
Over 65 percent of Asia’s Elderly Population Will Be Women
World’s Elderly Face Abuse, Stigmatization and Violence
Bangladesh: Old, Unprotected, and Alone
Baher Kamal
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
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