Older people left out as UN speeches repeatedly invoke young

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — One after another, the world’s presidents and prime ministers came to warn of their countries’ trials and tout their triumphs. But one of the biggest issues in either column was mostly left out.

As war, climate change and inequality have consumed much of the U.N. General Assembly, leaders have largely left unsaid the historic growth of the planet’s aging population.

“Older persons are pretty much missing,” said Claudia Mahler, one of the few voices at the U.N. devoted to aging, in the Commission on Human Rights. “Everybody thinks that the future is just something for younger persons.”

Across the world, societies are seeing the promise and perils of greying lands. Public health improvements, medical advances and declines in poverty have lengthened lives, bolstered workplaces with experienced colleagues and blessed families with grandparents and great-grandparents. At the same time, caregiving and economic crises have expanded with the old outliving their resources and suffering diseases with no cure.

But as leaders stepped to the rostrum this past week and addressed the world in front of the hall’s green marble, few saw the shift worth mentioning. They spoke of “new generations,” of “children” and of “youth.” They decreed listening to young people “essential” and ensuring their educations “sacred.” The old rarely made the cut.

“Everybody is only focusing on youth,” said Mahler, whose official U.N. title is independent expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons. “Older persons are not loud enough and there are not enough leaders who really focus ... Nobody wants to take up the topic even though it’s pressing.”

The population of people 60 and older has surged in recent decades, hovering around 1 billion globally. The U.N. projects...