Conference declares rights of older women
9/1/1998 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York By Suzy Heydel* NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - A "Nashville Declaration on Older Women's Rights" was drafted during an Aug. 27-30 convocation at Scarritt-Bennett Center.
Dozens of United Methodists joined women from other faith and secular groups at the official preparatory event for the United Nations' International Year of Older Persons in 1999. Global Action on Aging, an international grassroots citizen's group that focuses upon issues of concern to older persons, sponsored the event, in partnership with the Stanley Foundation.
The two-page Nashville Declaration, shaped by the 100 participants from the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia, was presented to Ambassador Julia Alvarez from the Dominican Republic, who gave the conference's keynote address. The declaration will be presented to the U.N. General Assembly at its session on the International Year.
The declaration calls for older women to have:
· access to free education and lifelong learning;
· access to barrier-free environments and clean air, water and soil;
· freedom from hostile social environments and negative attitudes about older women;
· access to comprehensive, long-term health care;
· representation in the political process; and
· provisions for economic security and opportunities for self-sufficiency.
Drafting the declaration was just one result of the four-day dialogue about the increasing isolation, poverty and marginalization of older women. Through a combination of lectures, focus groups and informal discussions, participants examined the prevailing stereotypes on aging and the proposed changes in Social Security, health care delivery and environmental factors that threaten the economic security and well-being of older women around the world.
Brigid Donelan, program officer of the U.N. Aging Program, opened the conference by delivering a message from Secretary General Kofi Annan that set the tone from a global perspective.
"Women nearly everywhere are living longer than men," she said. "Women are also more likely than men to be poorer in old age and face a higher risk of chronic illness and disability, discrimination and economic and social marginalization.
"At the same time, the essential contributions they make to the well-being of their families, communities and the economy are often overlooked," she added.
Income security is a key concern for Suzanne Paul, the founder of Global Action on Aging and a former United Methodist Board of Global Ministries executive. "Privatization of Social Security poses the biggest threat to older women's well-being in the U.S. today - and to those who will one day be old," she said.
Alvarez, who has introduced most of the resolutions on aging at the United Nations, stressed the need to "see that older people possess the same rights and obligations as all members of society."
"We need to think about the places of elders in society, speak out for their inclusion in all social institutions, see them as part of the human community instead of rendering them invisible," Alvarez said. "But thinking, speaking and seeing will go for nothing if we cannot also convince people to feel in their hearts the mutual dependence between young and old and the solidarity between the generations, which would lead to the reality of a society for all ages."
Other speakers included Carroll Estes, director of the Institute for Health and Aging, University of California at San Francisco; Laurel Beedon, senior policy analyst at the American Association for Retired Persons; Annelies de Vris, a representative of the National Age Discrimination Office of the Netherlands; and Liz Calvin, executive secretary for Women and Children for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
Marilyn Winters, a United Methodist consultant who worked with Paul to organize the event, challenged the participants. "Our goal is to focus the attention of people and organizations around the world upon issues of aging and to get them involved in next year's activities."
A satellite teleconference on aging, entitled "A Society for All Ages," has been set for Oct. 16, 1999. The producer is Shirley Whipple Struchen, director of the United Methodist Teleconference Connection.
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*Heydel is a free-lance writer based in Brentwood, Tenn.
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