WUNRN
OLDER WOMEN & PROTECTION OF
THEIR HEALTH RIGHTS
By Ferdous Ara Begum - Bangladesh
Former Member of UN CEDAW Committee
& Chair, Working Group for
CEDAW General Recommendation on
Rights of Older Women
On
October 1, 2011, the world celebrates the 21 anniversary of the International
Day of Older Persons. This is a significant moment to assess the global ageing
situation, particularly from the point of view of older women’s health rights.
Especially after two decades of UN recognition, how older women are
discriminated on the basis of age and gender and deprived of their human
rights, limited access to justice and lack of social and political protection
to ensure their basic needs.
The gendered nature of ageing reveals that women
tend to live longer than men and more older women live alone than men. As per recent UN DESA report, there are 83 men for every 100 women over the age of 60;
there are only 59 men for every 100 women over the age of 80.
The then UN Secretary General KOFI ANNAN stated at
the 2nd UN World Assembly on Ageing in
This
unprecedented demographic ageing, owing to the improvement of living standards
and basic health-care systems as well as decline in fertility and rising
longevity, can be considered as a success of development efforts and is set to
continue, making the twenty-first century the century of ageing. But those
changes in population structures have profound human rights implications and
increase the urgency of addressing the discrimination experienced by older
women in a more comprehensive and systematic manner.
In recent years, there have been significant advocacy efforts
calling for enhanced international thinking and action on the human rights of
older women. Various stakeholders have called for more visibility and increased
use of international human rights standards to address the dire situation of
millions of older women around the world especially their vulnerability in the
health sector.
Article
12 of the CEDAW Convention stipulates that States Parties shall take all
appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of
health care in order to ensure equal opportunity of access for men and women to
health care services.
General Recommendation 27 of the
CEDAW Convention on the protection of human rights of older women mentions in
detail about the health rights of older women.
This International Instrument in
Para 45 and 46 clearly mentions that States parties should adopt a
comprehensive health care policy for the protection of the health needs of
older women in keeping with General Recommendation 24 on women and health. This
should ensure affordable and accessible health care to all older women through,
where appropriate, the elimination of user fees for them, the training of
health workers in geriatric illnesses, the provision of medicine to treat
age-related chronic and non-communicable diseases, long term health and social
care, including care that allows for independent living, and palliative care.
This should also include interventions
promoting behavioural and lifestyle changes to delay onset of health problems,
such as healthy nutritional practices and active living, and affordable access
to healthcare services, including screening and treatment for diseases, in
particular those most prevalent among older women. Health policies must also ensure that
health care provided to older women, including those with disabilities, is
based on the free and informed consent of the person concerned.
States parties should adopt special
programmes tailored to address the physical, mental, emotional health needs of
older women with special focus on women belonging to minorities and women with
disabilities and those tasked with caring for grandchildren and other young
family dependants due to the migration of young adults or caring for family
members living with or affected by HIV/AIDS.
The right to health is an inclusive
right, extending not only to timely and appropriate health care, but also to
the underlying determinants of health, such as access to safe and potable water
and adequate sanitation, healthy occupational and environmental conditions, and
access to health-related education and information, including those on sexual
and reproductive health.
Older women are very much vulnerable
to various health risks as they grow older towards the age of 80 and beyond.
Availability and affordability of long term care in the home settings or
institutional care is a real challenge.
Access to free health care services is very important for older women in
order to enjoy a satisfactory standard of mental and physical health. Post
menopausal difficulties and diseases, neglect in disability and absence of
geriatric medicine require special attention. Older women face a higher risk of
chronic illness and disability as well as risk from degenerative diseases such
as osteoporosis, cervical cancer. In many countries health care for older
persons have been marked with inadequate supply and services, which amounts to
denial of affordable medical care for people especially in rural settings.
Inadequate provision for long-term care services remains a persistent concern
in many countries.
Postmenopausal conditions and
diseases tend to be neglected in research, academic studies, and public policy
and service provisions. In many countries, few health personnel are trained in
geriatric medicine and so health care service provision remains inappropriate
to older women’s physical, functional and mental health needs. Many poor older
women with no private health insurance or access to formal social security
cannot afford health care, particularly in rural areas where health posts may
be long distance from where they live in and they cannot afford the transport
costs.
Older people face discrimination and abuse in the health sector in a
various forms in many African
countries. The HIV and AIDS epidemic has had a significant impact on elderly
women in a number of ways. In many cases, older women have to act as a
full-time caregiver of relatives living with HIV or AIDS, often to the
detriment to their own quality of life. In the cases where older women are
living with AIDS themselves, it may be the case that there is no one to take
care of them. Furthermore, older women whose children have died of AIDS are
often left destitute.
In
In the
In 2001, the CEDAW Committee voiced
concern regarding the marginalization of older women in health insurance in the
States Parties should adopt a
comprehensive health policy for the protection of health needs of older women
as stated in the General Recommendation 24 of the Committee. Governments should
provide free and appropriate health care to all older women. This should
include the training of health personnel in geriatric illness, the provision of
medicine necessary for the treatment of age related illness including chronic
illness and non-communicable diseases, and palliative care to ensure that all older
women die with dignity.