Interpreting the ECHR in Light of Emerging Human Rights Issues: An Older Person's Perspective

Abstract

Older men and women have been identified as facing many human rights violations, yet provisions protecting this category are scattered over a large number of highly diverse instruments. Notwithstanding increased calls for a global binding instrument, European States in particular are reluctant to draft such a new human rights treaty. Although important soft law developments have taken place at the level of the Council of Europe – such as the new Recommendation on the promotion of the human rights of older persons – a treaty tailored to the needs of older persons does not exist at the regional level either. This has not, however, held back older persons from bringing their claims in terms of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) before its monitoring body. This paper aims to assess to what extent the specific needs of older persons have been integrated into this regional human rights mechanism, based on an analysis of relevant cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights. In other words, this paper aims to establish whether interpreting the ECHR from an older persons’ perspective has or can have both an integrating and strengthening effect on the protection of the rights of older persons in Europe