ABSTRACT
The human rights of the elderly is a topic that is somewhat neglected. Domestically, it is a dimension that is increasingly taken into account in at least some countries, but often in a haphazard way. Internationally, the debate on the predicament of senior citizens in terms of rights is only beginning (Rodriguez-Pinzon and Martin 2002 ). This is not to say that the elderly are not a concern, but that the issue is typically debated through registers, analytical or normative, other than that of human rights: medical, welfare, philosophical, political, economic, etc. The principal universal international human rights instruments do not contain any elderlyspecifi c provisions, except perhaps for the International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights’ reference to a right to “social insurance,” which is sometimes understood to cover pension rights. Most international elderly-specifi c instruments, such as the 1982 Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing or the 1991 UN Principles for Older Persons are not comprehensive human rights instruments.
