General Assembly

Distr. GENERAL  

8 December 1988

ORIGINAL:
ENGLISH

                                                         A/RES/43/93
                                                         75th plenary meeting
                                                         8 December 1988
 
            Implementation of the International Plan of Action
                      on Aging and related activities
 
      The General Assembly,
 
      Recalling its resolution 37/51 of 3 December 1982, by which it endorsed
 the International Plan of Action on Aging, adopted by consensus by the World
 Assembly on Aging,
 
      Recalling also its resolution 40/30 of 29 November 1985, in which it
 expressed its conviction that the elderly must be considered an important and
 necessary element in the development process at all levels within a given
 society, and reaffirming that developing countries, in particular, need
 assistance in order to implement the Plan of Action,
 
      Keeping in mind its resolution 41/96 of 4 December 1986, in which it
 requested the Secretary-General to review the world aging situation every six
 years,
 
      Reaffirming its resolution 41/96, in which it urged Governments to
 intensify their efforts, within the context of their own national priorities,
 cultures and traditions, to implement the recommendations contained in the
 Plan of Action,
 
      Reaffirming also its resolution 42/51 of 30 November 1987, in which it
 considered that the tenth anniversary of the World Assembly on Aging should be
 marked in 1992 by appropriate follow-up activities in order to maintain
 awareness on a global level of issues affecting the aging,
 
      Taking into consideration the preliminary findings of the second review
 and appraisal of the implementation of the Plan of Action, as contained in the
 report of the Secretary-General on the question of aging, which indicate that
 co-ordinating mechanisms and national machineries are essential for
 implementing the Plan of Action,
 
      Noting with concern that the United Nations does not have the necessary
 resources to deal effectively with requests for assistance and expert advice
 in the field of aging,
 
      Alarmed by the large reduction in the staff working on the programme on
 aging at the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the
 Secretariat,  which makes it difficult for the United Nations Office at Vienna
 to carry out the mandates given to it in the Plan of Action and reaffirmed
 repeatedly in General Assembly resolutions,
 
      Taking into consideration that there will be a marked increase in the
 population over the age of 60 years, and that increasingly women will
 constitute the majority of these elderly populations,
 
      Acknowledging the request of the Government of Yugoslavia for a
 feasibility study on the establishment of a United Nations-affiliated
 institute on aging at Belgrade,
 
      Recalling its requests to the Secretary-General to respond favourably to
 the request of the African Regional Conference on Aging, held at Dakar in
 December 1984, for assistance in establishing an African gerontological
 society,
 
      Acknowledging also the guide for future activities relating to aging in
 the Asian and Pacific region adopted by the Economic and Social Commission for
 Asia and the Pacific at the Expert Seminar on the Promotion of National
 Infrastructures for Aging Populations in Asia and the Pacific held at Bangkok
 from 14 to 17 December 1987,
 
      Appreciating the invaluable role played by non-governmental organizations
 in promoting greater awareness of issues that involve aging and in advocating
 measures to implement the Plan of Action,
 
      1.   Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the question of
 aging;
 
      2.   Welcomes the system-wide approach to issues of aging worked out
 jointly by the concerned agencies and bodies of the United Nations system at
 the inter-agency meeting on system-wide co-ordination of policies and
 programmes in the field of aging, held at Vienna on 10 and 11 March 1988, and
 recommends that the next meeting be held to coincide with the second review
 and appraisal of the International Plan of Action on Aging, in 1989;
 
      3.   Expresses its satisfaction that the International Institute on Aging
 has been established in Malta in co-operation with the United Nations and was
 officially inaugurated by the Secretary-General on 15 April 1988;
 
      4.   Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly on
 the activities of the International Institute on Aging;
 
      5.   Stresses the imperative need to increase the impetus of the
 implementation of the Plan of Action at national, regional and international
 levels, and appeals for resources to be provided commensurate with the
 requirements;
 
      6.   Urges the Secretary-General, in compliance with the views of Member
 States as reflected in his report, to maintain and strengthen the existing
 programmes on aging and to strengthen the United Nations system-wide
 co-ordination of policies and programmes on aging, with the Centre for Social
 Development and Humanitarian Affairs continuing in its role as focal point in
 the United Nations system for activities relating to aging;
 
      7.   Supports the recommendation made to the Secretary-General by the
 Commission for Social Development in its resolution 30/1 of 4 March 1987 that,
 in preparing the medium-term plan for the period 1990-1995, he should give
 priority to the careful elaboration of practical strategies to implement the
 Plan of Action by providing fuller co-ordination of aging activities in the
 United Nations system and maintaining adequate programme budget allocations;
 
      8.   Recommends that aging should be considered a priority theme in both
 the proposed medium-term plan for the period starting in 1992 and in the
 preparation of an international development strategy for the fourth United
 Nations development decade (1991-2000);
 
      9.   Urges that the staff of the Aging Unit of the Centre for Social
 Development and Humanitarian Affairs be maintained at levels which will permit
 the Centre to carry out its mandates as the focal point in the United Nations
 for all matters relating to aging;
 
      10.  Urges the bodies and organizations of the United Nations system,
 working in close co-operation with concerned centres and institutes as well as
 non-governmental organizations, and utilizing the networking mode of
 operation, to conduct further research and studies in order to assist Member
 States in developing demographic and socio-economic profiles of their elderly
 populations, so that ways and means of ensuring the full and effective
 participation of the elderly in development can be identified;
 
      11.  Requests the Commission on the Status of Women to pay particular
 attention to the specific problems faced by elderly women and to the
 discrimination suffered by these women because of their sex and age;
 
      12.  Decides to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the World Assembly
 on Aging in the plenary General Assembly at its forty-seventh session, in
 1992, and requests the Commission for Social Development to include in its
 second review and appraisal of the implementation of the Plan of Action a
 draft programme of substantive activities to mark this occasion;
 
      13.  Strongly appeals to Governments and intergovernmental and
 non-governmental organizations to contribute generously to the United Nations
 Trust Fund for Aging, bearing in mind that the Fund is particularly well
 placed to act as a catalyst for resource mobilization;
 
      14.  Welcomes the Secretary-General's efforts at finding options for the
 optimal use of the original resources of the Trust Fund for the Promotion of a
 United Nations Programme for the Aging, which include the formulation of a
 concerted programme of measures to the year 2000, and the proposal to create a
 world foundation on aging, which would encourage both the private and the
 public sector to support the work of the United Nations system in the field of
 aging;
 
      15.  Calls upon the specialized agencies, regional commissions and other
 funding organizations concerned to continue to support activities relating to
 the question of aging, in particular by providing assistance for projects that
 fall within their mandate;
 
      16.  Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at
 its forty-fourth session on the implementation of the present resolution;
 
      17.  Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-fourth
 session the item entitled "Question of aging".