NEW YORK - Unlawful deaths of older persons are alarmingly under-reported, under-investigated and under-researched worldwide, a UN expert said today, calling for urgent measures to strengthen investigative and preventive frameworks.
"Ageism and other forms of discrimination too often lead to abuse, neglect and other causes of unlawful deaths being overlooked," said Morris Tidball-Binz, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
"Harmful age-based stereotypes depicting older persons as inevitably frail, sick and near death can normalise and depersonalise their deaths, causing unnatural or preventable deaths to be falsely understood as mere incidents of aging," he said.
"As the world's older population grows, so too does the urgency of confronting these issues," Tidball-Binz said.
Even where death investigations are initiated, agents in charge may not have the necessary expertise to, for example, identify and document evidence of neglect and abuse, past and present, that may have culminated in death otherwise attributed to natural causes. For example, sepsis can cause a natural death, but it may be the result of long-lasting abuse and neglect.
In his report, Tidball-Binz outlined practical measures required to better respect, protect and fulfil the right to life of older persons, including by strengthening investigative and medico-legal processes, data collection, institutional oversight and preventative frameworks.
"Every potentially unlawful death of an older person requires an investigation in accordance with the UN Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death - today's gold standard for suspicious death investigations," the Special Rapporteur said. "Relevant professionals must be trained and equipped to recognise, respond to and document age-related vulnerabilities and signs of abuse."
"Age-based discrimination operates in conjunction with other forms of marginalisation," Tidball-Binz said. "Older women, persons with disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, Indigenous older persons and older migrants face risk of violence and neglect, layered upon other systemic inequalities."
The Special Rapporteur warned about contexts of heightened risk, including in places of deprivation of liberty - in health care settings, humanitarian emergencies and climate disasters and in armed conflict - highlighting that each of these situations require tailored responses to ensure adequate protections.
The report comes amid the establishment by the General Assembly of an open-ended intergovernmental working group for the elaboration of a legally binding instrument on the promotion and protection of the human rights of older persons.
"This is a unique opportunity to improve the protection of the right to life of older persons globally," the Special Rapporteur said, calling for the instrument to include articles on the right to life with dignity of older persons and the obligation to prevent and investigate potentially unlawful deaths of older persons across all settings.
"We are failing older persons. It is time for States to step up, shine the spotlight on this neglected issue and take concrete actions to prevent unlawful deaths of older persons and properly investigate them when they occur."
