I don’t know whether you are familiar with the streets in Lebanon. But the following scene is one I often see at Dora (Beirut):

A man of an advanced age still working, trying to earn his living. An elderly woman trying to sell chewing gum in Hamra…

or senior citizens simply begging:

These are pictures I took myself, (3 with my mobile and therefore they’re not very good) But what triggers me here is the fact that those senior citizens still need to be working in order to earn their living. So no work means no food?!

Let us just think about this all. Where are the children of those persons? Don’t they have any children? Is there nobody to take care of them? What are the possibilities of shelters of old folks’ homes? I know that many elderly do not have the possibilities to eat properly, and thank God initiatives such as “Resto du coeur”, and “the Assembly of the sons of the Church” and others such as ourselves are there to work and relieve but, to what extent? Where is the dignity they are entitled to? After having worked a whole life long they deserve to rest and relax! Seeing such pictures really upsets me, I sense all the misery and suffering behind it, the untold stories of loneliness and conflict.

Older people are entitled to benefit from international commitments to end poverty and to the full realisation of their rights. But millions of older people across the world live in fear and isolation, facing chronic poverty, untreated illness, violence and abuse, and limited access to education and the law.

Poverty and social exclusion remain the main stumbling blocks to the realisation of the human rights of older people worldwide. Gender, ethnicity, disability and age can create a cocktail of discrimination, leading to the marginalisation of older women and men from their families, communities and society.

Barriers that prevent older people claiming their rights include:

• negative social attitudes
• a lack of awareness among older people themselves and society
• poverty
• a lack of national policies on ageing
• wars and conflict
• discriminatory laws and policies.

Those responsible for violations of older people’s rights can be:

• relatives and immediate family members, through abandonment and abuse
• governments, through the lack of policies to protect older people
• healthcare and social workers, through negative attitudes and poor treatment of older people
• economic policies that cap social spending
• education systems, through the exclusion of adult and lifelong learning, and the negative portrayal of ageing
• community-based and non-governmental organisations, through age-biased programming and not seeking to involve older people
• the media, through negative reporting and reinforcement of negative social attitudes.