The rights of older persons and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Abstract

General Comment No. 6 was heralded as a turning point for the protection of the economic, social and cultural rights of the elderly. It helps all public authorities - from local councils to central governments, from police forces to social services to tribunals and courts - to act compatibly with fundamental rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and provides States Parties to the Covenant with useful baseline information for their periodic reports to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. However, more than fifteen years after its adoption, there is a notable absence of a positive culture of respect for the rights of older persons in several Contracting States. Indeed, in recent times the economic, social and cultural rights of the elderly have been more pilloried than celebrated and General Comment No. 6 itself has suffered at the hands of a range of detractors who have repeatedly emphasized its modest utility. This article examines the grand ambition of General Comment No. 6 to transform society through the introduction of a culture of respect for the rights of the elderly. It argues that the failure to secure institutional commitment to positive elderly rights compliance - and translate elderly people's fundamental rights into practical reality as an integral part of public life - has fostered cynicism of General Comment No. 6 and ultimately undermined the adoption in public consciousness of elderly rights as a positive social good.