Equal Opportunity, Age-Based Discrimination and the Rights of Elderly Persons in Uganda
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Date
2008
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Human Rights and Peace Centre
Abstract
Average life expectancy for Ugandans is currently estimated at 50 years for both
men and women. Nonetheless, with developed healthcare systems and social
conditions, there are telling indicators that a signiicant number of Ugandans
live and will continue to live well beyond this age. By 2002, older persons
constituted 4.6% of the total population. Whereas older persons are recognized
among the category of marginalized groups in Uganda, they continue to receive
minimal attention in comparison to others such as women, children, people with
disabilities and the youth.
Advocacy of the rights of older persons in Uganda is lackluster. Most support
offered to them is largely paternalistic. Social security also remains elusive,
given that the majority of them do not actually qualify for such schemes having
been mainly employed in the informal sector. For these reasons, older persons
are regarded as unproductive and helpless and yet recent studies reveal that
they are a major resource on history, traditional knowledge, health and culture.
Older persons have also played an important role as the mediators of conlicts
and disputes. Most importantly, older persons have been crucial in addressing
the HIV/AIDS pandemic, protecting orphans and caring for those infected and
affected.
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Citation
Oloka-Onyango, J. (2008). Equal Opportunity, Age-based Discrimination, and the Rights of Elderly Persons in Uganda. Kampala,, Uganda: Human Rights and Peace Centre, Faculty of Law, Makerere University.