Guarding the Guardians: A Critical Appraisal of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa

Abstract

On 31 January 2016 the African Union adopted the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa seven months after the Organization of American States adopted the Inter-American Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons. Both treaties represent a growing formal recognition of the vulnerability of older persons as a distinct group of persons and of the need to protect them as such by means of special rights. Yet older persons occupy a distinctly ambiguous position, especially in Africa where they are assumed to enjoy reverence, respect and authority but increasingly face deepening poverty, more responsibilities to care for members of their families, marginalisation and abuse. This article critically discusses how the African Older Persons' Protocol addresses this ambiguous position, focusing in particular on the Protocol's conception of 'older persons', its approach to the rights of older persons and the extent to which it is informed by distinctly African values and the lived experiences of older persons on the African continent.