Human rights unbound: An unrepentant call for a more complete application of human rights in relation to older persons—And beyond

Abstract

This article argues that, in relation to ageing issues in Australian society, we need to more strongly embrace an explicit and comprehensive human rights framework in analysing what is going on in our society and to adopt a much more robust and demanding human rights approach to policy development and holding government accountable for its actions and inaction. This means not just the explicit invocation of existing human rights norms to ageing issues, but also the development of new norms and interpretations of human rights that more fully reflect the perspectives of older persons than current mainstream norms do. The argument is developed through an analysis of reports of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and into Violence against Persons with Disabilities. It maintains that these bodies and others engaged in policymaking relating to older persons in Australian society can enhance their work by systematically applying a comprehensive and robust human rights framework.

Navigating the Minefield: Managing Refusal of Medical Care in Older Adults with Chronic Symptoms of Mental Illness

“…However, other rights are at stake in these cases. The ongoing violation of human rights in psychiatric settings 68,69 and of older adults [70][71][72] is well documented. The coercive treatment practices illustrated can impact on human rights by violating autonomy.…”

Advocacy for the human rights of older people in the COVID pandemic and beyond: a call to mental health professionals

“…Existing rights under CRPD as they apply to aged care have not been adequately implemented, nor are rights under other human rights treaties (Dorn and Apter, 2020). These failures have been driven by ageism, systemic inertia, and failure to recognize the specific situations of older persons (Byrnes, 2020;Doron and Apter, 2020). Advocates for a new UN human rights treaty recognize that while existing human rights treaties including CRPD provide important protections, they do not explicitly engage with issues that are of particular relevance to older persons…”

“…This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:10.1017/S1041610220001076 (Byrnes, 2020;Doron and Apter, 2020;Doron and Ithaka, 2015;Herro and Byrnes, 2020;UN Human Rights Council, 2018). Furthermore, a large "implementation gap" has existed between articulation of human rights principles in human rights frameworks, policies and legal instruments, and the actual enjoyment of such (Biggs and Haapala, 2013).…”

“…Health care has been notoriously silent about human rights issues and often demonstrates little awareness of human rights frameworks (Byrnes, 2020;Peisah and Jessop, 2020). Now is the time to speak up and act.…”

COVID‐19, human rights and older people

“…The COVID‐19 crisis has highlighted our precarious, contingent social norms and moral code around the value of older life and inclusion of older people as full participants in society and as rights holders within human rights narratives and practices 2 . The pandemic has also provided a case study of the limitations of legal systems available to protect the human rights of older people and the limited state of rights embeddedness and implementation in our institutions and culture.…”