Background
The concept of a society for all ages is rooted in the Programme of Action adopted at the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995. At the Summit, Member States explored the meaning of "a society for all". Viewed as the fundamental aim of social integration, it is a society where "…every individual, each with rights and responsibilities, has an active role to play". By integrating "age" into a society for all, the approach becomes multigenerational and holistic, whereby "generations invest in one another and share in the fruits of that investment, guided by the twin principles of reciprocity and equity" (A/50/114, para 38).
Focus
Creating a new "architecture" for ageing and transmitting it to the worldstage and into policy has been the focus of the United Nations Programme on Ageing since 1982, with the adoption of the International Plan of Action on Ageing at the World Assembly on Ageing in Vienna (also known as the Vienna Plan).
The decision to observe 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons and to promote its theme, "a society for all ages", came in 1992 with the adoption of the General Assembly of the Proclamation on Ageing, "in recognition of humanity's demographic coming of age and the promise it holds for maturing attitudes and capabilities in social, economic, cultural and spiritual undertakings, not least for global peace and development in the next century". Thus began an extensive undertaking by the Programme on Ageing to build a framework that would create a flourishing environment for "a society for all ages", define its parameters and give it substance. The conceptual framework was conceived in 1995 (A/50/114). To this day it has facilitated global thinking, exploration, and policy orientation on a society for all ages that is expected to continue well beyond 1999. |
