On 22 January 2019, a workshop organised by the German Institute for Human Rights and the Office of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights looked into key elements on the topics of long-term care, palliative care and autonomy and independence.

The outcomes of the workshop discussion will be part of the NHRIs’ input in the form of normative content to the UN Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWG-A).

Gabriel Almeida, Human Rights Offer at the ENNHRI Secretariat, presented the main outcomes and conclusions from ENNHRI’s previous work on long-term care and discussed with representatives of the Polish and German NHRIs, scholars and experts in the field the key elements for addressing the right to long-term care.

The 10th Session of the OEWG-A will be held on 15-18 April at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Chair of OEWG invited A-status NHRIs to provide substantive inputs on the topics of: “social protection and social security including social protection floors” and “education, training, lifelong learning and capacity-building” in the context of the rights of older persons; and inputs in the form of normative elements on the rights to “autonomy and independence” and “long-term and palliative care”.

From 2015 to 2017, ENNHRI coordinated a project funded by the EU on the rights of older persons in long-term care.

ENNHRI’s Publications on the human rights of older persons in long-term care include: European Overview Report – “We have the same rights”: The Human Rights of Older Persons in Long-term Care in Europe, June 2017

Handbook on Monitoring the Human Rights of Older Persons and Long-term Care

“We Have the Same Rights: An ENNHRI Toolkit on Applying a Human Rights-Based Approach to Long-term Care for Older Persons, October 2017