The first of the thirty-two recommendations found in the 2012 Guyana Report on Aging (the Report) states that “Associations of Older Persons could help educate about the rights of the elderly and promote their active participation in the community activities”. The Report also states that the government has committed itself during the next five years to develop a national inter-sectoral plan for the elderly of the type recommended by the Madrid Action Plan (explained in this column a fortnight ago), to include older persons and their interest groups in that planning and to enact comprehensive legislation to enhance and protect the rights of the elderly.
Undoubtedly, given the non-inclusive nature of this regime, many persons will view these and the other government commitments in the Report as mere window-dressing intended to dupe the international community, and that government inaction will be facilitated by the lack of independent stakeholder associations in Guyana, which dearth was recognised in the Report and is in contrast to what exists in neighbouring Caribbean countries. In the first of the articles on this subject I argued that the existence of independent elderly associations driven by and accountable to their constituency is a sin qua non for the success and sustainability of a programme to improve their condition. The government-appointed National Commission for the Elderly may well have a role to play in the general scheme of things but is not sufficiently independent from the government to ensure the fulfillment of the desired agenda.
But all may not be lost as the largely invisible Government Pensioners Association, the only related non-governmental organisation the writers of the Report appeared able to consult, has the potential to be more representative if it becomes more proactive and seeks national and international support for its activities. In Barbados, a similar type organisation, the Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) is a vibrant “non-profit, non governmental organisation which actively promotes the independence, dignity and purpose in life of its members, representing and expressing their views and concerns, and taking action to bring about change.” Small as that country is in relation to Guyana, BARP has some 33,000 members over the age of fifty and is one of the largest of such organisations in the country. It publishes its own free magazine twice a year and among the benefits it offers to members are free legal guidance services, a personal assistance fund and a golden health insurance plan.
Guyana has a human rights legislative framework and constitutional commissions have been established for children, indigenous peoples and women and gender equality. The fact that we do not have comprehensive legislation dealing specifically with the rights of the aged and that there is no constitutional commission to address their interests is indicative of the lack of attention paid to the elderly.
According to the Report, the government is well aware of this deficiency and has committed itself to reviewing all existing legislation to bring it in line with UN conventions and to enact national laws to protect the physical and mental integrity of older persons. Such legislation will include measures to safeguard property and help the elderly to remain in their own homes during old age and include a comprehensive national bill of rights for older persons. As most of the protection the elderly will be afforded will flow from such legislation they require some further consideration.
The recently concluded (24th August, 2012) UN’s Open Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWG) pointed to the nature and scope of these rights and claimed that even international law does not at this stage properly protect the rights of the elderly for there are few explicit references to old age and their discrimination is usually captured under the discretionary rubric “other status”. However, as we move towards legislation, the Working Group draws our attention to the important fact that, perhaps because of historical practice, many times elderly people simply do not know what their rights should be and that they are being discriminated against. For example, in the area of employment, national policies for hiring, early retirement and redundancy can go against the interest of the elderly by seeking to promote a younger workforce and attention should also be paid to areas sometimes not thought relevant or important such as travel insurance, mortgages and bank loans, etc. This is one reason why the dissemination of best practices is very important.
Simple and cheap institutions that the elderly can utilise to assert their rights should also be established. Australia’s anti-discrimination legislation on race, sex, disability and age has led to the establishment of one such mechanism, namely a free and confidential complaints commission – not a court – where older people, their representatives or any member of the community can file complaints and get them resolved. So far the commission has satisfactorily resolved more than 50 percent of the cases presented to it.
The other promises the government is committed to implement over the next five years are uninspiring.
The most important are to develop minimum standards and improve the monitoring of long-stay care institutions, establish a new state of the art seniors home that also provides day services and to initiate healthy ageing screening programmes to address the physical and mental needs of the older persons. If the regime is to fulfill its international commitments, among other things, the Report also recommends succession training to facilitate transition to new jobs after retirement, pension reform to arrive at improved monetary pensions and other benefits, subsidised housing within existing and new housing schemes and the introduction of low cost public transportation.
I believe that even if most of the commitments the government has made are implemented the general condition of the elderly is unlikely to significantly improve. There is a relative complaisance about the position of the elderly in all sectors of our society which will not be overcome unless they themselves are organised as a serious pressure group and able to effectively aggregate and articulate their interest. The divided nature of our society will not make this an easy task but given the expertise, talent and political awareness among our elderly, it is not impossible to achieve.
