Older people and human rights: Hackney training session

Twenty older residents of Hackney, east London, were brought together in July 2009 to discuss human rights and the issues faced by older people.

They are one of four groups of older people who will work together as part of a human rights project over the next two years. The project is run in partnership with Age Concern and Help the Aged.

An essential part of a rights based approach is that people are empowered to change their own situations. Before the human rights training sessions begin in November, participants in the four regions are being brought together in initial sessions to explore the issues affecting them. 

The problems identified by the Hackney residents touched on many areas of their lives - street violence, road safety, health and nutrition, home and medical care, poverty and discrimination.

An important feature of the project is that older people will work together to tackle the issues that affect them.

One participant in her sixties observed the value and importance of being with people who have gone through the same experiences and witnessed the same changes in society. She highlighted the waves of feminism and the changes that have taken place for women: ‘Younger people don't always understand that,' she said.

The importance of working together was also stressed by Sonia Omar, BIHR's Third Sector Development Officer: ‘What does tolerance look like? What does respect look like? If we can show this in this room we can then take it into the outside environment'.

The vitality of these older people and their determination to improve their own lives and the lives of others was clear. The training will harness this energy, and empower them, through giving them the practical knowledge to use human rights.

The groups will be trained in human rights by experts from BIHR, but as Sonia observed at the Hackney session, their own experience will be invaluable: ‘with so much experience in this room,' she said, ‘this is really where the learning is'.

• Read about the Older people and Human Rights project here.