UN world assembly on ageing

On behalf the International Humanist & Ethical Union representatives attended the United Nations World Assembly on Ageing in Vienna. This Assembly was attended by 110 countries and several hundred representatives of Non-Governmental Organisations.
The fact of increasingly ageing populations throughout the world is vividly apparent. The implications of such a vast population shift are not so readily apparent.
They must be dealt with.
The isolation and alienation of numbers of the elderly are sad facts. The elderly have usually lost more than any other age group: work, spouses, friends, parents, and – most of all – hope. They often have little to sustain them economically, physically, or spiritually. Particularly in large cities, they are frequently the victims of violence.
As a movement the International Humanist & Ethical Union is doing very little for the aged. At the Vienna Assembly only in the report of the Netherlands were the “humanists” noted as affiliates, along with other groups, in maintaining homes for the ageing.
The International Humanist & Ethical Union therefore calls on its member organisations to

1. Focus on an inter-generational approach in all our activities,
2. Institute educational programmes which help people to consider growing older in a more positive light than seeing it as an inevitable stage of life,
3. Develop practical programmes to enhance the present and future lives of all including our ageing human beings.

IHEU Congress 1982

Suggested academic reference

'UN world assembly on ageing', Humanists International, World Humanist Congress, Hanover, Federal Republic of Germany, 1982