A human rights approach to the protection of older persons in Nigeria

Abstract

The constancy of change is evident in the different stages of human development, from birth to death. Responsibilities, needs and vulnerabilities, vary at these stages. The African traditional system reveres the elderly. Nigeria’s Constitution protects her citizens and at the regional level, there is the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa (Older Persons Protocol), yet, many elderly persons seem excluded from intervention programmes. In view of this reality, this work questioned the protection of elderly rights in Nigeria. It adopts the doctrinal methodology from analytical and comparative approaches. Data is sourced from primary and secondary data sources. It found that the African traditional system and human rights framework have merits and demerits and that omission of age as a ground for nondiscrimination in the Nigerian Constitution leaves their human rights protection on a shaky ground, particularly with non-ratification of the Older Persons Protocol. It recommends ageing awareness, constitutional amendment, ratification and domestication of Older Persons Protocol, the enactment of a concrete law that will unpack elderly rights, and criminalizing care responsibility, i.e., holding dependents criminally liable for their older wards in the same way that children are protected.

Keywords: Abuse of older persons, human rights approach, protection, rights of elderly persons, Africa, Nigeria.