Alice Chen
ecofin@worldmun.org
Alice Chen is a senior in Dunster House from Toronto, Canada concentrating on Economics with a citation in French. On campus, she was president of the Harvard Undergraduate Capital Partners, Director of PR for Harvard WECode, and a researcher for Harvard Business School’s India Research Center. In her free time, she organizes free trips to the Boston Symphony Orchestra as part of the Harvard Undergraduate Symphony Society.
Topic: The Global Retirement Age
The phenomenon of an aging population is a worldwide occurrence with deep-seated implications for the human rights of all individuals. Forecasts suggest that by 2050, the population of those 65 and older will swell to 1.5 billion, meaning one in every six people globally will be in this age group. This trend of increased longevity, while a testament to advancements in human development and healthcare, has also highlighted signicant deficiencies in protection measures, as well as in policies and programs tailored to the needs of the elderly. The Covid-19 pandemic has further exposed, and in many cases exacerbated, these critical gaps in human rights protections for the elderly, including issues like age-based discrimination, insufficient social and health care services, limited autonomy and involvement in decision-making processes, and protection from violence, neglect, and abuse. Despite these challenges, older individuals often remain overlooked in the international legal sphere. Currently, there is a lack of comprehensive, universally recognized standards to guide the creation of laws safeguarding their rights. Consequently, the international legal framework is fragmented and inadequate in addressing specific protection needs for the elderly to fully exercise their human rights.