TENTH ANNUAL COMMEMORATION OF INTERNATIONAL DAY OF OLDER PERSONS TO BE HELD AT HELD AT HEADQUARTERS

Meeting the needs of a world ageing population that will double over the next 25 years will be the focus of an all-day event at United Nations Headquarters on 5 October as the United Nations marks the International Day of Older Persons 2000.

The event will also serve as an important forum of ideas for the second World Assembly on Ageing, to be held in Spain in 2002. The World Assembly is expected to produce a global strategy for programmes and policies that will integrate ageing issues into mainstream policy-making.

With people living longer, the number of people 60 and over will double by 2025 to a population of 1.2 billion. Within the older population, the number of people over 80 years old is expected to approach 320 million. Developing countries' populations are ageing more quickly than elsewhere, and these countries also have less time and resources with which to adapt.

In both developing and developed countries, services for the elderly are limited, and ageing issues are often dealt with on the side, not in the mainstream. One of the goals of the World Assembly is to integrate and mainstream ageing issues with national agendas.

The commemoration event will be held at United Nations Headquarters in Conference Room 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Programme of the Day

-- Kensaku Hogen, United Nations Under Secretary-General for Communications, will welcome participants and moderate the session. Mr. Hogen will also deliver a message on behalf of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan

-- Arthur Mbanefo, Permanent Representative of Nigeria, and Inocencio F. Arias, Permanent Representative of Spain, will offer the keynote addresses, from the perspectives of developing countries and the host country, respectively.

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-- To highlight the need for intergenerational communications, the event will also feature a youth perspective that will include two ninth grade students and a graduate student in gerontology from Hofstra University.

-- Julia T. Alvarez, Alternate Representative of the Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations will offer recollections on the First World Assembly on Ageing, which was held in Vienna in 1982.

Other speakers include: John Langmore, Director, Division for Social Policy and Development; Thomas R. Cole, Graduate Program Director, Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch; Emiko Nagano, The Humanist Center of Cultures; Brigid Donelan, Social Affairs Officer, Division for Social Policy and Development; James R. Dumpson, Graduate School of Social Work, Fordham University; and Alexandre Sidorenko, Chief, United Nations Programme on Ageing.

The all-day event is organized by the Non-Governmental Organization Committee on Aging in collaboration with the United Nations Programme on Ageing and the United Nations Department of Public Information.

The International Day of Older Persons has been celebrated since 1991, and this day has galvanized attention on the issues facing the ageing populations, including poverty, healthcare, and social isolation. The theme of this year�s commemoration is "Towards a Society for All Ages�Continuing the Mission at the Second World Assembly on Ageing."

For more information, please contact Dan Shepard, Development and Human Rights Section, United Nations Department of Public Information, tel. (212) 963-2191 or e- mail [email protected].

For accreditation please contact the Media Accreditation Unit, United Nations Department of Public Information tel: (212) 963-6934 and Fax: (212) 963- 4642.

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