Age Demands Action will work nationally and internationally to ensure all older people are included in development policies and practice.

National delegations will raise the issues that matter to them and are specific to their country. To find out what each country delegation is calling for visit the country profiles pages.

Actions on 1 October will be supported by an ongoing campaign to pressure the international community to take action and include older people in the development agenda.

Our current calls to action for the international community focus on the Millennium Development Goals, HIV and AIDS and Human Rights.

Human rights

Include older people in the human rights system

We will call for a UN-commissioned study on human rights and older persons to be carried out by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The study will investigate:

• whether, and what, rights of older people have been violated
• which rights violations of older people are not currently being addressed by the UN system.
  

Read more about human rights abuses of older people around the world.

HIV and AIDS

Include older people in HIV and AIDS data collection

Three of the key indicators used to assess the impact and spread of HIV and AIDS do not include people over 50.

This means older people are often forgotten in policies developed to combat the epidemic. It also means older people do not receive the recognition and support they need in their vital role as carers to children orphaned by AIDS.

Many older people are infected and affected by the AIDS virus. This also needs to be recognised.

We want all indicators to include data for people over 50, broken down by age and sex.

Read more on HIV and AIDS indicators.

Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)

Include older people in strategies to achieve the MDGs

The Millenium Development Goals aim to tackle the issues faced by the world's poorest people by achieving eight specific targets. Up to now strategies to achieve these targets have largely ignored older people. This cannot continue.

We are calling for social protection schemes, including social pensions, to be included in all strategies to achieve the MDGs.

Research has shown that a pension or regular cash transfer can benefit not only older people themselves, but also their children and grandchildren. They do this by reducing poverty and improving access to healthcare and education.

The MDGs are being reviewed in 2008 so the time to act is now. By supporting older people and their families with social protection schemes, progress towards achieving the MDGs will be accelerated.

Find out more about social protection