AGE Platform Europe in collaboration with Equinet, the European network of National Equality Bodies (NEBs) organised last June a seminar entitled “Tackling Age Discrimination against Older Persons: Building Bridges between Equality Bodies & Older Persons’ Organisations”. A report based on this seminar was launched on October 1st on the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons.
Providing tools to fight ageism
The seminar hosted by the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency in Berlin brought together about 50 participants from NGOs and Equality bodies. Its purpose was to build the capacity of NEBs and older persons’ organisations to detect, prevent and address ageism and age discrimination, and promote equality for older people. In the course of two days we had discussions about the legal and practical meaning of the term ‘ageism’, the legal framework that we can use to fight age discrimination, the barriers older persons face to equal participation in society and how equality bodies and NGOs can work together at national and European level to strengthen the fight against ageism. Read more on our joint seminar in this article.
Age discrimination: looking at challenges and opportunities
Age discrimination is often perceived as less ‘severe’ compared to other forms of inequalities, such as those based on gender or race and is therefore widely justified. National as well as EU legal frameworks lack comprehensive protection of age discrimination in all spheres of life. Age limits in health, long-term care, access to education, new technologies and social protection, among others are limiting older people’s opportunities to participate equally in society. According to the Eurobarometer older age is the most common form of disadvantage in access to employment.
AGE and Equinet will build on the outcomes of the seminar to bring more visibility to age discrimination at EU level, whereas our national members will use their respective strengths and expertise to continue work within their countries.
To learn more about the discussions that took place during the seminar you can read the report here.
The presentations of the seminar can be found at the end of this article by Equinet.
This page will be updated with further outputs of the seminar, including a checklist for NGOs and NEBs on how they can collaborate together at national level.
To learn more about AGE and Equinet work on ageism and age discrimination click on the links below:
- AGE campaign #AgeingEqual to fight ageism
- Equinet discussion paper on “Fighting discrimination on the ground of age”
For more information about the seminar you can contact Estelle Huchet or Nena Georgantzi
