New Delhi, 8th April 2026: Agewell Foundation has issued an appeal to His Excellency Mr António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the wider international community, urging immediate and visible action to protect older persons who are increasingly bearing the hidden burden of global conflicts, instability and rising anxiety. The organisation, in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations ECOSOC since 2011 and associated with UN-DPI-NGO, has urged global bodies to take note and move swiftly towards concrete action.
In a communication addressed to His Excellency Mr António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Foundation highlighted the urgent need to move beyond policy discussions and ensure real-time protection for older persons affected, directly and indirectly, by ongoing crises worldwide.
Mr Himanshu Rath, Chairman, Agewell Foundation, said, “The world cannot remain silent as older persons bear the invisible burden of conflict and anxiety. The generation that built our modern world deserves immediate security, dignity and respect. A future legal instrument will lose meaning if the international community fails to protect older persons in the present crisis.”
According to the Foundation, older persons in conflict zones continue to face severe challenges including disrupted access to healthcare and medicines, food insecurity, mobility constraints, trauma and isolation. At the same time, older persons outside conflict zones are also experiencing heightened psychological distress, helplessness and anxiety driven by relentless global news cycles.
The Foundation noted that while global conversations around the rights of older persons have gained momentum in recent years, including the adoption of United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 58/13 and the establishment of the Intergovernmental Working Group in early 2026, a serious disconnect remains between advocacy and action. It further expressed concern that despite repeated calls for a UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons, the specific suffering of older adults in present-day crises remains largely invisible in humanitarian assessments, aid distribution systems and protection frameworks.
Through this appeal, the Foundation has urged all stakeholders to close the gap with immediate, concrete measures. It called on UN bodies and agencies to embed the specific needs of older persons into all humanitarian and conflict-response mandates, implement age-disaggregated data collection and ensure meaningful participation of older persons in emergency planning and response frameworks.
It also called on human rights bodies and mechanisms to issue timely and prominent statements on rights violations affecting older persons and to highlight present-day protection failures beyond broad convention discussions.
Governments and member states have been urged to prioritise elder-inclusive humanitarian aid, maintain essential services during crises and contribute practical national insights to the Intergovernmental Working Group.
Further, the Foundation appealed to NGOs and humanitarian organisations to embed older persons’ rights into rapid-response systems, design age-sensitive psychosocial support programmes and strengthen mechanisms for remote family connections and social support.
Emphasising the dignity and contribution of senior citizens, the Foundation underscored that older persons are not passive recipients of future rights but are reservoirs of wisdom, resilience and lived experience whose rights must be protected immediately.
With decades of direct engagement with older persons across India and global advocacy platforms, Agewell Foundation reiterated its readiness to collaborate with governments, UN bodies, civil society and humanitarian organisations to convert commitments into tangible action.
