Multi-stakeholder meeting on the human rights of older persons: Full Schedule

10:00am CEST

Opening session

Speakers

Peggy Hicks

Director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division, OHCHR

Since January 2016, Peggy Hicks has served as director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR). She provides strategic direction to the UN Human Rights Office’s work on a broad range of pressing human... Read More →

Claudia Mahler

Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons

Ms. Claudia Mahler (Austria) assumed her role as Independent Expert in May 2020. She is a senior researcher in the field of economic, social and cultural rights for the German Institute for Human Rights since 2010. She was also a visiting professor at the Alice Salomon Hochschule... Read More →

Volker Türk

Under-Secretary-General for Policy, Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General

Volker Türk is the Under-Secretary-General for Policy in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General (EOSG) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Mr Türk coordinates global policy work, with a particular focus on follow-up to the ‘Our Common Agenda’ report and strategic... Read More →

Federico Villegas

President, Human Rights Council

Ambassador Federico Villegas is a lawyer and career diplomat. He entered the foreign service of Argentina with honours in 1993. He was appointed Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva in March 2020, after... Read More →

Michelle Bachelet

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR

On September 1, 2018 Michelle Bachelet assumed her functions as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was established in 1993 and Ms. Bachelet is the seventh Commissioner. Ms. Bachelet was elected President of... Read More →

Monday August 29, 2022 10:00am - 10:30am CEST
Palais des Nations (room XVII), Zoom and UN Web TV

10:30am CEST

Session 1: Limitations and gaps of selected human rights norms and obligations

Speakers

Heidrun Mollenkopf

Board Member, AGE Platform Europe, Civil Society representative to UNECE

Heidrun Mollenkopf has been Board Member of the German National Association of Senior Citizens' Organisations (BAGSO) since 2014 and was Vice-President of AGE Platform Europe until 2021. Since 2016, she represents BAGSO regularly at the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing at the UN in New York. In 2019, she has been appointed to the office of the Standing Working Group on Ageing (SWGA) at... Read More →

Israel (Issi) Doron

Dean of the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa

Currently Prof. Doron is the Dean of the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences at the University of Haifa, and the Past President of the Israeli Gerontological Society. He specializes in the fields of law and ageing, social policy, human rights and ageism. Prof. Doron has... Read More →

Bridget Sleap

Senior Researcher, Rights of Older People, Human Rights Watch

Bridget Sleap is Senior Researcher at Human Rights Watch where she leads the work on older people’s rights. Before joining Human Rights Watch in 2021, Bridget was senior rights policy adviser at HelpAge International where she led the organization’s research and advocacy on the... Read More →

Kiran Rabheru

Chair, Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People

Dr. Kiran Rabheru is Full Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa and Geriatric Psychiatrist at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH). He obtained his MD from University of Western Ontario and practiced in rural and urban settings as a family physician for several years. He is a Certificant... Read More →

Monday August 29, 2022 10:30am - 12:00pm CEST
Palais des Nations (room XVII), Zoom and UN Web TV

3:00pm CEST

Session 2: Adequacy of existing human rights mechanisms in responding to the challenges

Speakers

Margarette May Macaulay

Rapporteur on the Rights of Older Persons, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay was re-elected by the General Assembly of the OAS during its 49th Regular Period of Sessions, on June 28, 2019, for a further four-year term from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2023. She had previously been elected by the General Assembly... Read More →

Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame

Member, UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Mrs. Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame is an expert member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), where among other things, she chairs both the working group on women and girls with disabilities and the taskforce on the general comment on work and... Read More →

Anna Chabiera

Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of Poland, Senior Specialist

Anna Chabiera is a sociologist and a senior specialist in the Department of Equal Treatment in the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in Warsaw (a Polish National Human Rights Institution), where since 2011 she organizes social research on discrimination based on grounds... Read More →

Andrew Byrnes

University of New South Wales

Andrew Byrnes Emeritus Professor of International Law and Human Rights in the Faculty of Law and Justice at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia where he is also an associate of the Australian Human Rights Institute and the Ageing Futures Institute at UNSW. His work... Read More →

Vasilka Sancin

Vice-Chair, UN Human Rights Committee

Vasilka Sancin, PhD, is a Full Professor of International Law, Head of Department of International Law and Director of the Institute for International Law and International Relations at University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law. She is a member (2019-2022) and Vice-Chair of the United... Read More →

Heisoo Shin

Vice-Chair, UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Heisoo Shin (Ph.D.) has been working for over forty years in the area of human rights, including in particular on women’s human rights, at the national, regional and international levels. She served as a commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission in Korea for three years... Read More →

Monday August 29, 2022 3:00pm - 5:00pm CEST
Palais des Nations (room XVII), Zoom and UN Web TV

10:00am CEST

Session 3: Strengthening coordinated actions for the protection of the human rights of older persons

Speakers

Claire Sookhyun Oh

Assistant Director, National Human Rights Commission of Korea

Claire Sookhyun Oh is an Assistant Director of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. She joined the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in 2013 after her internship at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva in 2011. Ms. Oh has actively engaged... Read More →

Alana Officer

Unit Head, Demographic Change and Healthy Ageing, World Health Organization

Alana Officer holds a degree in Health Science (Podiatric Medicine) and Masters degrees in Applied Science – Exercise and Sports Science (research) and Public Health. Alana started her career as a clinician in Australia and England before holding a number of technical and managerial... Read More →

Silvia Perel-Levin

Chair, Subcommittee on the Human Rights of Older Persons of the NGO Committee on Ageing in Geneva

Silvia Perel-Levin chairs the subcommittee on the Human Rights of Older Persons of the NGO Committee on Ageing in Geneva, Committee she chaired for eight years until April 2022. An advocate for the rights older persons she has been working in the fields of human rights, ageing and... Read More →

Matthias von Schwanenflügel

Head of Directorate-General on Demographic Change, Senior Citizens, Social Welfare, Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Germany

Prof. Dr. Matthias von Schwanenflügel LL.M.Eur.Since May 2014 Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, heading Directorate-General 3 'Demographic Change, Senior Citizens, Social Welfare'.Since 2017 honorary professor at the University of Bremen1991... Read More →

Tuesday August 30, 2022 10:00am - 12:00pm CEST
Palais des Nations (room XVII), Zoom and UN Web TV

3:00pm CEST

Session 4: Towards strengthening the protection of the human rights of older persons

Speakers

Amal Abou Rafeh

Chief of Programme on Ageing Section, UN DESA

Amal Abou Rafeh is the Chief of the Programme on Ageing Section at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York. She serves on the Secretariat of the General Assembly's Working Group for the purpose of strengthening the protection of the human rights of... Read More →

Emem Omokaro

Director-General, National Senior Citizens Center of Nigeria

Dr. Emem Omokaro is the pioneer Director General of the National Senior Citizens Centre of Nigeria. She holds a Ph.D. in Development Sociology and Post-Doctoral Cert. in Social Gerontology University of Calabar, Nigeria and, International Institute on Ageing (INIA) – UN Malta respectively... Read More →

Franklin M. Quijano

Chair, National Commission on Senior Citizens of the Philippines

Born in Dansalan (now Marawi City, October 5, 1955), Franklin M. Quijano is an esteemed State Scholar of the country. Through scholarships, he graduated Cum Laude in AB Economics at the University of San Carlos (USC) in Cebu City. While teaching Economics at USC, he studied law, and... Read More →

Claudia Mahler

Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons

Luis Gallegos

Global Initiative on Ageing Foundation, President

President of UNITAR's Board of Trustees. President of the Global Initiative on Ageing Foundation. Chairman of the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (G3ict). In addition is a Board Member of the Special Olympics. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ecuador. Former... Read More →

Mónica Roqué

Chair, Latin American Association of Community Gerontology

Monica Roqué: es médica, Especialista en Políticas Públicas con Enfoque de Derechos Humanos, Magister en Administración de Servicios de Salud y Seguridad Social con Especialización en Tercera Edad, y Magister en Dirección y Gestión en Sistemas de Seguridad Social de la Universidad... Read More →

Tuesday August 30, 2022 3:00pm - 4:45pm CEST
Palais des Nations (room XVII), Zoom and UN Web TV

4:45pm CEST

Closing session

Speakers

Luis Gallegos

Global Initiative on Ageing Foundation, President

Peggy Hicks

Director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division, OHCHR

Anita Pipan

Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the UN

Ambassador Anita Pipan currently serves as the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Slovenia to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva. Among other assignments in Geneva she also represents Slovenia as the co-chair of the Group of Friends for Rights of... Read More →

Tuesday August 30, 2022 4:45pm - 5:00pm CEST
Palais des Nations (room XVII), Zoom and UN Web TV