October 1st is the International Day of Older Persons. On this occasion, national equality bodies and human rights organisations traditionally release updates regarding the situation of older persons and the discrimination they may face in the workplace and in accessing services. France’s equality body, for instance, reports increasing discrimination in a number of domains, ranging from employer to access to housing and credit. In Germany, the Institute of Human Rights released a study calling for a new international convention to protect the rights of older persons.
The Age Platform, which represents organisations of and for people aged 50+ at European level, calls for a EU multi-stakeholder dialogue group on older people’s rights to support EU’s commitment and improve action coherence; to address the invisibility older persons face in human rights policymaking; and to cooperate with the future independent expert on the human rights of older people whose position has just been adopted by the UN Human Rights Council.
Our report ‘Age and Employment’, produced by the European Network of Legal Experts in the non-discrimination field, examines some practical aspects of the implementation of the prohibition of age discrimination by reporting States. The report considers how the different ways in which the various exception, or potential exceptions, to the principle of equal treatment are phrased in the Directive have influenced national legislation on age discrimination. It points towards the need for consistent guidance on the facts of ageing being made centrally available so that the prohibition can be applied with some consistency in identical factual situations in different member States.
