The World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) is celebrated each year on 15 June. The Day was officially recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 66/127, December 2011, following a request by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA), who first established the commemoration in June 2006. It represents the one day in the year when the whole world voices its opposition to the abuse and suffering inflicted to some of our older generations.

Statement by the UN Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2020, June 15.

"While older persons have become more visible in the COVID-19 outbreak, their voices, opinions and concerns remain unheard. With the number of older persons dying in homes, hospitals and institutions growing exponentially all over the world, it is disheartening to continue to read cruel and dehumanizing language on social media referring to older persons. Verbal abuse clearly occurs in contexts when older persons face old age discrimination ('ageism').

Verbal and derogatory online abuse have profound negative effects on the human rights of older persons. Negative and sometimes unfounded comments severely impact their physical and mental health, promote negative images or in the worst cases lead to violence, abuse and neglect of older persons.

Derogatory comments in the media are a direct attack against the dignity of older persons. The 'boomer remover' hashtag attached to coronavirus posts and media articles calling for older persons to sacrifice themselves to save the economy or to safeguard younger generations by exposing themselves to the virus are clearly reflections of bias against older persons. Policies based on ageist attitudes cannot be tolerated and I urge States to monitor and implement measures to avoid ageist approaches. Older persons need to have access to accountability mechanisms that provide for remedies and redress when their human rights are violated.

I also want to raise awareness that violence, abuse and neglect do not only occur in the open and very often are not visible to society. Societies must raise their voices against verbal abuse and older persons, especially older women, must be included in the discussion on prevention of all types of violence against them.

Verbal abuse often occurs in tandem with mental, psychological, physical, sexual or financial abuse and I urge social media to do their part and at least not enable abuse by propagating messaging that violates human rights of older persons."

Ms Claudia Mahler, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons; Human Rights Council

Forum: Safeguard older persons during COVID-19 and beyond. World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2020.

As the world grapples with an unparalleled health crisis, older persons have become one of its more visible victims.

Elder abuse can be defined as “a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person”. It is a global social issue which affects the Health and Human Rights of millions of older persons around the world, and an issue which deserves the attention of the international community. In many parts of the world elder abuse occurs with little recognition or response. Until recently, this serious social problem was hidden from the public view and considered mostly a private matter. Even today, elder abuse continues to be a taboo, mostly underestimated and ignored by societies across the world. Evidence is accumulating, however, to indicate that elder abuse is an important public health and societal problem. Elder abuse is a problem that exists in both developing and developed countries yet is typically underreported globally. Prevalence rates or estimates exist only in selected developed countries — ranging from 1% to 10%. Although the extent of elder mistreatment is unknown, its social and moral significance is obvious. As such, it demands a global multifaceted response, one which focuses on protecting the rights of older persons.

From a health and social perspectives, unless both primary health care and social service sectors are well equipped to identify and deal with the problem, elder abuse will continue to be under-diagnosed and overlooked.

POLICY BRIEF: The Impact of COVID-19 on OLDER PERSONS.

The impact on health, rights and long-term care services for older persons .

SOLUTIONS/ RECOMMENDATIONS

• Ensure that all older persons at risk of acquiring COVID-19 - especially those with underlying health conditions and those living alone - are identified and attended to as early as possible. • Ensure that medical decisions are based on individualized clinical assessments, medical need, ethical criteria and on the best available scientific evidence. • Take urgent action to prioritize testing of vulnerable populations in closed settings, including older adults living in long-term care facilities, in areas of sustained community transmission. • Ensure continuity of adequate care services for older persons such as mental health services, palliative and geriatric care, including through support for unpaid care givers in homes and communities, and for paid care workers who provide home-based care or care in institutional settings. • Ensure that COVID-19 cases or deaths occurring in care facilities are reported and improve monitoring of the situation in residential care facilities. • Strengthen services to prevent and protect older persons, particularly older women, from any form of violence and abuse, such as domestic violence and neglect. • Ensure that visitor policies in residential care facilities, hospitals and hospices balance the protection of others with their need for family and connection. • Ensure that contingency plans and strategies address the high risks faced by older refugees, migrants and displaced persons and provide access to health treatment and care.

The effects of physical distancing and stigma.

SOLUTIONS/ RECOMMENDATIONS

• Ensure that community-based services and support to older persons, including social and legal services, are maintained despite physical distancing measures. • Strengthen care facilities for older persons in ways that respect their rights and autonomy. • Assess the needs of older persons, particularly those who are more isolated or those with limited mobility and cognitive decline/dementia, in order to provide targeted support, including mental health and psycho-social support. • Support older persons and those providing care so they can access digital communication or alternative ways to keep contact with their families and social networks when physical movements are restricted. • Ensure that information on measures to protect themselves from COVID-19 and on how to access services reaches older persons by working with community organizations and volunteers and using a variety of formats that may be accessible to a large number of older persons. • Increase mobile services to ensure access to more isolated older persons or those with limited mobility to assess their needs and to provide support. • Work with communities and use a variety of formats such as radio broadcasts, print notifications, and text messages to ensure critical information reaches older persons. • Use terms to describe older persons that do not stigmatize them and avoid stereotyping. Avoid labeling older adults as uniformly frail and vulnerable. Refrain from using words to refer to older persons that carry negative connotations or bias.

Integrate a focus on older persons in the overall socio-economic and humanitarian responses to COVID-19 .

SOLUTIONS/ RECOMMENDATIONS

• Draw on UN system support, in line with the UN’s framework for responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity.• Deploy a response in humanitarian settings that is sensitive to the range of risks facing older people and contribute to the UN’s Global Humanitarian Response Plan. • Ensure the income security of older persons, particularly older women, through universal pension coverage and adequate entitlement levels. • Adopt immediate socio-economic relief measures and social safety nets, such as guaranteed access to food, water, essential goods and services and basic healthcare during the COVID-19 crisis for older persons affected by economic hardship. • Devise alternative ways to disburse pensions, social benefits and safety nets for older persons during the crisis, such as sending pension cheques to homes rather than to post offices. • Include older persons in economic recovery initiatives, removing age caps for livelihood and job rehabilitation programmes, as well as other income-generating activities or food-for-work initiatives and for obtaining micro-credit. • Include older persons in life-long learning programmes and enhance their access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). • Explicitly and directly address the high risks and vulnerabilities faced by older people in emergencies, particularly the most vulnerable, including refugees, migrants and displaced persons, in national response plans and strategies. • Consult with older persons on their specific COVID-19 related risks, ensuring their meaningful participation and enabling targeted action in the response. • For long-term recovery, ensure universal access to health-care and adequate old-age benefits. • Build stronger legal frameworks at both national and international levels to protect the human rights of older persons, including by accelerating the efforts of the General Assembly’s working group to develop proposals for an international legal instrument to promote and protect the rights and dignity of older persons.

Harness knowledge and data, share good practices, and expand participation by older people.

SOLUTIONS/ RECOMMENDATIONS

• Review dis-aggregation protocols for data on social welfare, violence (including domestic and gender-based violence), public participation, and other essential indicators to remove upper age cut-offs and to ensure full older age dis-aggregation of crucial data. Promote the generation and tabulation of available data on older persons by five-year age groups. • In addition to age, promote the collection, further dis-aggregation and broad dissemination of data by other critical dimensions, including sex, disability, marital status, household (or family) composition and type of living quarters, for more granular and meaningful data analysis to inform policies affecting older persons. • Review and revise death reporting in residential facilities to better protect residents and staff and concentrate resources where they are most needed. • Provide clear surveillance standards for case reporting on COVID-19 to capture co-factors of risk among older persons, including age, sex, and underlying health conditions. • Review and revise participation modalities at the national and global levels to strengthen the participation of older persons and their advocacy organizations in decision and policy-making. • Better integrate the experiences of countries in advancing the human rights of older persons into relevant global forums.

WEAAD OBSERVANCES S BY YEAR

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2020 : "Safeguard older persons during COVID-19 and beyond ".

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2019 : “Access to Justice: Legal, Social and Economic Services for Older Victims of Sexual, Physical and Financial Crimes” .

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2018 : “Moving from Awareness to Action through a Human Rights based approach”.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2017: “Violence against older persons, a human rights issue.”

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2016: ''Ending Elder Abuse: Breaking the Generational Cycle of Violence'' .

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2015: ''Falling Between the Cracks: Abuse and Violence against Older Women''.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2014: ''Neglect, Abuse and Violence against Older Women.''

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2013: ''Prevention of Elder Abuse .''

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2012 “ Honoring Elder Persons and their role in the societies. " First celebration of the world Elder Abuse Awareness Day

EVENTS:

Individuals, communities, municipalities and organisations come together and hold events to raise awareness of elder abuse on June 15th. As in previous years, many activities had been held, hoping to bring greater recognition of the mistreatment of older adults wherever they live throughout the world and to highlight the need for appropriate action.