Side event “Socio-environmental disasters and rights of older people”

Background
The Second World Assembly on Aging, meeting in Madrid in 2002, approved the Madrid Political Declaration and International Plan of Action on Aging. The goals and objectives of said Plan were established and conceived with a view to building “a society for all ages”, providing a transformative vision of aging and guidelines for the design and implementation of public policies.

The Action Plan promotes and considers as a priority the creation of conducive and favorable environments, that is, the environmental and sociocultural conditions that allow dignified and safe aging in the community of origin. The Action Plan also highlights that in emergency situations, such as natural disasters and other humanitarian emergencies, older people are especially vulnerable, and this must be recognized. Along these same lines, priority measure 24 of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development deals with the importance of “granting the highest priority to older people in disaster prevention, mitigation and response plans, including disaster preparedness.” , the training of workers in the prevention and attention of emergency situations and the availability of goods and services.” Likewise, the Action Plan calls for, in disaster situations, governments and humanitarian relief agencies to recognize that older persons can make a positive contribution in emergency situations and promote rehabilitation and reconstruction; For example, it is recognized that older people often assume primary responsibility for providing care.

According to the report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), climate and meteorological disasters have increased fivefold in the last 50 years. Likewise, according to ECLAC, “in recent decades the frequency and destructive capacity of disasters have increased, regardless of their origin or speed of outcome. Latin America and the Caribbean is a highly exposed region. In this way, these phenomena are becoming a structural element that increasingly requires public policies for risk management, in general, and social protection, in particular.” In turn, in 2021, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) presented the analytical study on the promotion and protection of the rights of older persons in the context of climate change, in which It is noted that rising temperatures, sea level rise and coastal erosion, forest fires and high temperatures and extreme weather events such as heat waves, cold weather, floods, droughts and hurricanes , present significant and often devastating risks to the human rights of all those affected, but older people suffer disproportionate effects.

The seventh Meeting of the Forum of Latin American and Caribbean Countries on Sustainable Development offers an adequate space to reflect, analyze and identify priorities with special reference to socio-environmental disasters, climate change and older people, since in the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development is explicitly included in the goals of Goal 11, significantly reducing the number of deaths caused by disasters (goal 11.5); as well as reduce the environmental impact of cities and provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green areas and public spaces, specifically mentioning the relevance of older people (goal 11.6 and 11.7). Furthermore, work on age-friendly communities and cities is one of the priority themes of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Aging (2021-2030).