The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) represented by Rigbe Gebrehawaria, Commissioner for Women, Children, Older Persons and Disability Rights, took part in a two-day expert workshop held in Geneva from October 16-17, 2024. Organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the event focused on the centrality of care and support from a human rights perspective. The workshop was held in response to resolution 54/6 adopted by the Human Rights Council on October 11, 2023.
The workshop aimed to explore the human right dimensions of care and support for women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons—both as caregivers and recipients. It also sought to assess best practices and challenges in recognizing and safeguarding these rights. The discussions followed submission of various reports to inform the workshop and High Commissioner’s report to the Human Rights Council, pursuant to the resolution, including one by EHRC.
A key feature of the event was the panel discussions that addressed the rights of care and support recipients, the rights of caregivers and the rights associated with self-care, particularly from the perspectives of women, children and youth, older persons, and migrants. Commissioner Rigbe Gebrehawaria served as a panelist highlighting critical international, regional and national legal frameworks concerning the rights of older persons in accessing care. She discussed various challenges faced by older persons in Ethiopia, including cultural perceptions that view care as charity rather than a human right, the absence of national legislation and institutional frameworks and the lack of disaggregated data on older persons. Additionally, she noted the limited availability and quality of care centers, which are predominantly run by individual philanthropists, inadequate funding and the shortage of trained professionals, alongside increased discrimination and rights violations, particularly in conflict and humanitarian contexts.
Commissioner Rigbe stressed that despite existing protective frameworks, significant gaps remain in terms of comprehensiveness, implementation and societal attitudes towards the rights of older persons in accessing care. She called for stronger advocacy for comprehensive and inclusive policies, including the formulation of a binding UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons, to ensure a dignified and respectful care and support system.
Based on the discussions at the expert workshop and in consultation with States Members of the United Nations and other interested parties, the High Commissioner will prepare a comprehensive thematic study on the human rights dimension of care and support. The study will summarize and compile international standards, good practices, and main challenges at the national level in care and support systems, including recommendations on promoting and ensuring the human rights of caregivers and care and support recipients. The study will be made available on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an accessible format, prior to the fifty-eighth session of the Human Rights Council as requested in the resolution.
