The National Human Rights Commission of Korea Elected Chair of Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) for Fifth Consecutive Term Elected Chair of Working Group on Older Persons
- The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has been internationally recognized for its capacity to respond to the human rights of older persons-
On March 26, 2024, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) was elected as the Chair of the Working Group on Older Persons of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and the National Human Rights Commission of Poland was elected as the Vice-Chair (two-year term, June 2024-June 2026) at the GANHRI Working Group on Older Persons meeting held via videoconference. This is the fifth consecutive time that the NHRCK has chaired the Working Group on Older Persons.
* The GANHRI is an international network of more than 120 national human rights institutions from around the world that work together internationally to protect and promote human rights.
Established in 2016, the GANHRI Working Group on Older Persons (the "Working Group") is composed of nine national human rights institutions representing each continent, as well as a number of observer states. The Working Group promotes the human rights of older persons agenda among national human rights organizations and leads the issue of human rights of older persons in the international community, including the United Nations. NHRCK has chaired the Working Group since its inception.
As Chair of the Working Group, NHRCK has held annual meetings and participated in the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Open-ended Working Group on Older Persons to draw international attention to the human rights agenda of older persons, such as presenting the need for the drafting of a Convention on the Rights of Older Persons. In addition, in 2022, the NHRCK drafted the UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons, gathered opinions from national and international experts, and will propose the draft convention to the United Nations and other international organizations this year.
As the world's elderly population grows and the human rights blind spots of the elderly increase, the NHRCK will use this election to sound the alarm on the issue of the human rights of the elderly, which has received relatively little attention at home and abroad, propose a draft convention on the rights of the elderly to the United Nations to strengthen human rights protection for the elderly, and continue to cooperate with national human rights institutions and civil society organizations overseas.
"I am honored to be reappointed as Chair of the Working Group at a time when the need for a Convention on the Rights of Older Persons is being widely debated at the United Nations, and I look forward to using the expertise and network of the NHRCK to play a key role with national human rights institutions around the world in the drafting of a UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons," said Chair Doohwan Song.
