Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Joint Sub-Committee on Human Rights relative to Justice and Equality Matters

UN Convention on the Rights of Older People: Discussion

10:00 am

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. As they may be aware, the Seanad has a public consultation committee and our first report, a few years ago, was on the rights of older people. We recommended movement towards the development of a treaty for older people at UN level. I am on record as being in favour of that, and our colleagues in the centres of disability and human rights at NUI Galway have been working in this field. One of the things we learned during the consultation was that, in the process of moving towards a UN treaty on the rights of older people, the EU group of which Ireland was a part was not in favour. Maybe it was not that they were not in favour but that they were unconvinced of the need for it. They spoke about treaty fatigue and asked whether we needed another treaty on the rights of another group of people. Can the witnesses update us on where the negotiations are in respect of the EU group feeding into the UN? The witnesses referred to the UN open-ended working group on aging.

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