Gray Panthers and the United Nations
The United Nations, with 193 Member States, allows, under special circumstances within established procedures, the participation of non-governmental organizations in their deliberations. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations is tasked with the responsibility of facilitating such participation.
This means that those NGOs “in consultative status with ECOSOC” (granted through application and special procedures) are permitted to present written statements or deliver oral statements at the EOCOSOC subsidiary bodies – which meet annual – such as the Commission for Social Development (which deals with social development issues – ageing, youth, the family, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, social development), Commission on Population and Development, Statistical Commission, Commission on the Status of Women, etc.
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Gray Panthers is an NGO that has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
In 1948, the Conference in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO) was established to help NGOs apply for ECOSOC consultative status https://ngocongo.org. The website has useful information for NGOs interested in global issues. CoNGO has established committees such as the NGO Committees on Ageing, Status of Women, Indigenous Peoples, Health, Human Rights, Education, Migration, etc. to discuss UN issues and how best like-minded NGOs can advocate and participate in global discussions. NGOs belonging to those committees meet regularly to discuss strategy, common goals, collaboration and how best to ensure that governments are paying attention to international agreements. NGOs are basically watchdogs to ensure government compliance with international agreements, and are influencers to ensure the protection of the human rights of all people, reduction of poverty, gender equality, end to violence, abuse and neglect, accessibility to affordable healthcare, housing, legal representation, etc.
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Gray Panthers is a member of the CoNGO/NGO Committee on Ageing https://ngocoa-ny.org/
Some NGOs, in consultative status with ECOSOC, are grassroots organizations working at the national level (like Gray Panthers). There are also quite a few that are big global organizations with many affiliates and networks around the world, such as, Baha’I International Community, Caritas International, Doctors Without Borders, HelpAge International, International Federation of Business and Professional Women, International Federation of Social Workers, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, International Red Cross, Soroptimist International, World Vision, etc. No matter their size, NGOs collaborate and coordinate the activities, often signing on to each other’s statements, to demonstrate strength in numbers.
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Another important area of work of the United Nations is implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Development and its sustainable development goals (SDGs). A key grouping of NGOs that has the mandate to participate in the deliberations of the annual High Level Political Forum is known as the Major Groups and Other Stakeholders (MGOS) comprising 21 constituency groups, of which the Stakeholder Group on Ageing (SGA) is one of its members.
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Gray Panthers NYC is a founding member of the SGA. Currently Gray Panthers (represented by Jack Kupferman) and HelpAge (represented by Carole Agengo) are SGA’s “Focal Points” to facilitate SGA members participation in SDG matters.
The Stakeholder Group on Ageing https://www.stakeholdergrouponageing.org/) was established in 2013 for the purpose of contributing to the drafting of the 2030 Agenda for Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. The SGA currently has 20 member organizations, some of which have affiliates around the world. It in turn is a member of the MGOS-Coordination Mechanism which meets at least twice a month to facilitate effective participation of the MGOS in the processes leading up to the annual HLPF (High Level Political Forum) and in the HLPF itself, which reviews implementation of the SDGs (https://hlpf.un.org/2025). The HLPF reviews a number of SDGs each year. Member States submit “Voluntary National Reviews” to show the status of their implementation of the SDGs.
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The work of the MGOS-CM includes selection of participants in expert group meetings, making joint statements on sustainable development issues, ensuring involvement in drafting by Member States of the annual Ministerial Declaration, and will also be involved in the preparations for the World Social Summit to take place in Qatar in November 2025.
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The Stakeholder Group on Ageing’s key outputs are:
1) the “annual discussion/position paper”, the summary of which is submitted, along with other MGOS submissions to the HLPF official session. The 2024 “long version” is here: https://hlpf.un.org/sites/default/files/vnrs/2024/Inputs%202024%20Stakeholder%20Group%20on%20Ageing.pdf.
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The summary appears in a consolidation of the submissions from other MGOS . For 2024, the summary appears here: https://hlpf.un.org/sites/default/files/2024-05/ES%20MGoS%20position%20paper_0.pdf
2) its annual side event during the HLPF which takes place in July.
AT THE UNITED NATIONS
Within the Secretariat of the United Nations in New York, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs is responsible for data collection, monitoring, research, and analysis of issues dealing with economic and social development.
Issues concerning older persons and ageing fall under the responsibility, at the global level, of the Programme on Ageing Section in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs https://social.desa.un.org/issues/ageing (with Ms. Amal Abou Rafeh as Chief, who works closely with NGOs concerned with ageing issues). The main area of work revolves around implementation of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA). Member States, including the USA, submit reports every five years on their implementation of MIPAA. The Programme on Ageing Section also analyzes implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015.
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At the regional level, ageing issues are addressed by each of the five UN regional commissions located in Bangkok, Beirut, Chile, Ethiopia, Geneva. The focus is also implementation of MIPAA and the SDGs.
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Human Rights of Older Persons
The Programme on Ageing Section collaborated with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in backstopping the Open-ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA), established in 2010 by the General Assembly in New York to determine the feasibility of an international legally binding instrument (a “convention”) to protect the human rights of older persons. The General Assembly, in August 2024, decided to conclude the work of the OEWGA and has urged that “relevant UN bodies further consider the recommendations of the Open-ended Working Group adopted at its fourteenth session in its decision 14/1 (https://undocs.org/A/AC.278/2024/2)
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No decision has yet been taken about drafting a convention, but the matter has now been shifted to Geneva, where the Human Rights Council is located.
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From a coordinated civil society perspective, the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People (GAROP) is continuing to advocate for a convention - https://rightsofolderpeople.org/
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Gray Panthers is a founding member of GAROP. NGOs in New York will still follow issues impacting older persons at the various ECOSOC function commissions (e.g. Commission for Social Development, Commission on Population and Development, Statistical Commission, Commission on the Status of Women).
Attendance at UN meetings: NGOs require badges to enter the premises.