During the last EGP-council ENGS has been recognized as the official Network of Green Seniors. From now onwards we can add our own points to the EGP-agenda.
During the council ENGS kept a fringe meeting about ‘The Social Dimension of Ageing’. A report will follow.
‘Another Ageing for Europe!’, our white paper has been presented succesfully to the council. Translations in Dutch, French, German and Spanish can be expected.
100. Anniversary Women Rights
Vienna 19.3.2011
Powerful OLD Women are needed!!!
We demand Women-Quota for Austrian Senior-Council!
9 Men, but 0 Women in the Committee
5.000 Women (and men) in front of Parliament
Germany
The State Labor Court in Dusseldorf ruled: no leave may be adjusted according to age
The General Equal Treatment Act (2006), also known as Anti-Discrimination Act states that discrimination is not allowed, for example, because of sex, origin or age. Accordingly, it is a discrimination if the leave entitlement is adjusted according to age. The number of vacation days in a collective agreement may not be made dependent on the employee’s age. If there is an exception, it must specifically be explained.
Deutschland
Landesarbeitsgericht in Düsseldorf entschied: Urlaub darf nicht nach Alter gestaffelt werden
Das Allgemeine Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (2006), auch Antidiskriminierungsgesetz genannt, besagt, dass Benachteiligung z. B. wegen des Geschlechts, der Herkunft oder des Alters nicht zulässig ist. Es ist dementsprechend eine Diskriminierung, wenn der Urlaubsanspruch nach Alter gestaffelt wird. Die Anzahl der Urlaubstage darf im Tarifvertrag nicht vom Alter des Arbeitnehmers abhängig gemacht werden. Falls es da zu einer Ausnahme kommt, muss sie besonders begründet werden.
The European Green Seniors have been part of the European Green Party Council for the past five years – as observers. They present their political programmes for older people to a green public and discuss important topics for the future of aging. The ENGS deals with pension systems, questions about the quality of life in old age, political representation, social politics, the fight against poverty in old age and numerous other focal points
ENGS’ task and aim is to make green politics for old age distinctive and efficient und thus enable future generations to live an old age worth living and secure. Therefore, it is our primary aim to change our status in the EGP from observer to fullmembership, with a seat and a vote.
(The texts in italics are explanations and refer in part to the 30 paragraphs of the Human Rights Convention)
• Paragraph 1)
Everyone, including old people, has the right to live according to the Declaration of International Human Rights. Senior citizens’ rights are explicitly oriented towards the needs of older people.
(human rights)
Paragraph 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person
(Human Rights Convention, 10 December 1948)
• Paragraph 2)
Everyone, including old people, has the right to work (paid or unpaid) and accordingly, to a life-long safeguarded income. Age must not serve as a pretext to oust persons from work processes
(work, income, existence)
Paragraph 23: Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment and to protection against unemployment. (Human Rights Convention, 10 December 1948)
• Paragraph 3)
Everyone, including old people, has the right to an unlimited use of social liberties and to life-long education
(liberty, participation)
Paragraphs 24 to 27:
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being
Everyone has the right to education
Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life
(Human Rights Convention, 10 December 1948)
• Paragraph 4)
Everyone, including old people, has the right to contribute responsibly to an independent social life
(responsibilities)
Every citizen is entitled, according to his/her powers and possibilities, to contribute to support the common good. Contributions that might be used to replace jobs, due to volunteer work for instance, or such contributions that facilitate the liberalization of social services are exempted from this rule.
• Paragraph 5)
Everyone, including old people, has the right, with adequate support, to participate in the cultural and social life. The right to supported mobility must be guaranteed.
(cultural and social participation)
This right includes the elimination of age requirements for activities in the cultural and social fields and the safeguard of mobility in order to lead an independent life.
• Paragraph 6)
Everyone, including old people, has the right to live according to his/her culture and ethnic origin unless the human rights of other persons are affected or infringed upon
(cultural independence)
• Paragraph 7)
Everyone, including old people, has the right to health promotion and health care and also to refuse it consciously. This also includes the right to healthy food and a healthy environment. Everybody, including old people, also has the inalienable right to care.
(health, disease)
This right includes free access to medical preventive and curative care and the financial support and guarantee thereof.
• Paragraph 8
Everyone, including old people, has the right to practice or to refuse religion and to live according to his/her freedom of thought and conscience until the end of his/her life.
(religious practice, freedom of conscience)
Paragraph 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Human Rights Convention, 10 December 1948)
Within the framework of religious belief or faith no actions may be taken that contradict human rights
• Paragraph 9)
Everyone, including old people, has the right to personal protection and social integration until the end of his/her life, guaranteed by the government of his/her country
(national protection, to be aimed for within the EU)
Governments are obliged to guarantee personal protection and social integration until the END OF LIFE, in their government programme, policy statement and body of law.
• Paragraph 10)
Everyone, including old people, has the right to equal status and equality, independent of sex, sexual orientation or belief. (Law against discrimination)
This right also applies to equal allocation, i.e. to be treated equally in the reallocation of financial and/or other resources. This applies especially in case of any impediment in old age.
• Final paragraph
In order for senior citizen rights to be secure and enforceable they have to be part of the constitution
Every constitution must contain the rights and duties of older people according to national legislation. The term ‘old age’ must be determined according to international values (cf. WHO-definition) and must not depend on the ability to work.
Translation: Kitty Weinberger, Austria
Here is the explanation by German scientists why women live longer, but also remain healthy longer than men.
The fact that German men in the average get 77 years old, but die 5 years earlier than women is described by scientists in
“The first German men`s health report”.
It was published by the “Men`s Health Foundation”, Berlin and the “German Society for man and health” (DGMG) e.V. with the support of the German insurance company DKV AG.
The scientists found out that at least four of the five years have nothing to do with the biological differences. Biologically explainable is only one year. They came to the conclusion that men lead an unhealthy lifestyle and consequently are therefore physically and mentally more exposed to illnesses than in the average the women and that thereby also social and cultural factors play a role.
Men`s nutrition is more unhealthy, as they eat more meat and less fruit and vegetables, they are often drunk and smoke more. They go less to the doctor and they more seldom do not consider preventive measures such as cancer screening or the cardiovascular check every two years. It is still too often regarded as masculine not to pay attention to one`s health. Men are masters in the displacement of mental and physical troubles and rarely talk about their feelings.
Men have a five times higher risk of cardiac infarction than women. They also suffer more often from the following diseases:
Lung cancer, alcohol abuse, liver disease caused by alcohol abuse, diabetes, obesity and gout.
There is also a big difference with mental disorders that among men are often not recognized or concealed. While in these cases women respond with anxiety, depression or psychosomatic disorders, among men these illnesses often manifest themselves through consumption of alcohol, other drugs, violence or personality disorders.
On the job men are also far more exposed to the dangers of injuries and accidents, do more hard physical labor and suffer to a greater extent from wear and tear.
A further factor is that men are more under stress, because many men tend to completely do everything for their careers, as they exploit themselves through overtime. Especially, when they take on the breadwinner role after the birth of a child, this behavior can be observed.
Health researchers argue that the screening and treatment services need to be better oriented to the needs of the men, but also see that the men have the duty to intervene themselves and to take responsibility for their health.
Green politics must engage itself that conditions for a healthier life are created, whether
- By more medical orientation to the specific needs of men of all ages
- Through increased health education
- By questioning the wrong role models
- By promoting less working hours per week in the employment contracts
- By flexible working hours, especially for older employees
- By requiring earlier retirement for people in professions that require hard physical labor
- By replacing fixed-term contracts with permanent contracts also for older people
Our workshop „A new treaty between young and old“ is a first attempt to gain a wide public for one of the really pressing problems of all generations.
In a decade in which the destruction of our earth proceeds continuously, a decade in which social justice definitely collapses, we do not want to idly stand by.
We that is the generation of the so called Golden Age, the generation of the new grandparents, of the still wild 68s, want to prevent what still can be prevented. With a new generation contract which follows the guiding principles of human relations: To be around for each other in good as well as in bad days.
A new generation contract has to ensure the future of all generations. Because the neo-liberal economic approaches and the overall social conditions have dramatically changed the world around us. But there have been considerations long before how people of all generations can come to an equitable distribution of resources. To save the world for future generations – and not to have to spend our old age in poverty and senselessness.
There was already in the 1950s when Wilfrid Schreiber wrote his proposal for a generation contract the important question: how should wealth be distributed fairly across the generations and how can the lives of those who cannot care for themselves be assured. Konrad Adenauer then exactly shortened the part of Wilfrid Schreiber`s proposal that was dedicated to the young generation, the children and young people. In this model they were also given an “income” which should secure their living.
Today we are again in the same position and have to fight for the acquired rights. Because the obligation of the state to step in where the self-accrued, paid for pension is not sufficient is slowly being dissolved.
The admonitory finger, you kindly take care of it yourselves and who is strong enough to save something from his young adulthood will survive – the old age.
In a neo-liberal, capitalist economy and social system it is deliberately forgotten, wiped away and not recognized that neither investments mean security nor is there room for such provisions among young people who have just started to build up their future.
Profiteers of these considerations are the financial markets worldwide. Whoever has the opportunity to invest his savings is at the mercy exposed to a capital market that can destroy his savings already the next day. The banks can win, the capital can win. But not the human being.
Our approach as older generation is therefore to secure our existence with a legally enforceable generation contract and to prevent the compulsion into private provision. Our eminent issue is to give the responsibility to the state rather than to allow the state to financially support private provision and thereby promote the capital market.
But it also very essential for us to protect future generations with the new generation contract as a basis for intergenerational equity, because they will really be facing a bleak future in old age. A future, in which one has to fight for each tree, in which energy is approaching its end, in which the labor market has become the plaything of the capital, in which the loss of solidarity has become a razor-sharp tool, to make clear to all generations: whoever is not fighting for his survival and will not push others away from the food bowl of life, will be overrun.
“The goal of intergenerational equity is to create opportunities for future generations to meet their own needs, in the same way as the generations before them were able to do. Integrative, sustainable justice is the foundation.”
We are jointly committed here and now to work on a new generation contract which will give us all the courage and strength to stand up for each other and to demand what we deserve. Social justice for all generations!
Under pressure of the black-red Federal Government and the insurance lobby the EU-wide harmonization of standards for the protection against discrimination were delayed for a long time outside the employment life – regarding personal characteristics such as age, disability, religion and belief as well as sexual orientation.
Only because of massive pressure from us Greens the EU Commission finally in 2008 presented its draft for a framework directive for the missing areas of protection against discrimination. This requires that people with the mentioned characteristics must be granted protection against discrimination in their effective access to services and goods including housing, education, social benefits, social protection as well as social security and health services.
In discrimination cases the burden of proof is moved in order to help the victims. Associations or organizations can support these or take over the plaints. However, the proposal of the Commissions for disabled people remains below the protection level that the UN-Convention for people with disabilities demands from all signatory states and the EU. Therefore, we Greens remain active to rework the still existing gaps in education, the family law or the access possibilities for disabled people.
(from: the Green theme in European politics, European Green Group in the European Parliament, January 2009)
FUTUREZONE met members of the Vienna Initiative of Green Seniors to test technical devices
The generation of 60 plus can no longer be considered to be outdated. Laptop, iPad, Navigator and digital camera inspire also older people – as shown with a test of technical devices in the FUTUREZONE. For seniors fair prices, good value for money and a personal added value are important.
Seniors cannot cope with modern techniques, they cannot cope with fast progress, computers are too complicated: so much for current clichés. But it is different in real life. FUTUREZONE met with members of the Vienna Initiative of Green Seniors in order to test technical devices: different products – from mobile phones for seniors to digital cameras to iPads – were thoroughly tested by the participants. There was a lot of enthusiasm. “I definitely want an iPad for Christmas”, says Birgit Meinhard-Schiebel, chairperson of the senior association and grabs it. The rest of the group – even those who had never heard of an iPad before – was delighted by the intuitive touch screen application and the design of the device. Only when they hear about the costs (from 500 Euros upwards), some lose interest.
Christa Lettner admits, “it is always a question of priority. For all devices it is important to get good value for money.” She is the only one in the group who is immediately convinced about the current Emporia mobile phones for seniors. “You can argue as much as you want – but when you get older larger keys are a big advantage”, says Lettner. The reason why she does not have one yet is the price. The device costs approx. 100 Euro, depending on the dealer. “I don’t want to spend more than 30 Euros on a mobile phone.”
Also the navigator, a Garmin Nüvi 1490 TV with DVB-T meets a lot of interest. Nobody has problems using it; they quickly discover the TV function. “Of course, such devices have to be used carefully”, says Fritz Machac – responsible for the Senior Initiative’s website – and alludes to drivers who do not think independently and then sometimes get stuck in narrow alleys.
Laptop, digital camera, mobile phone – such devices are standard in the association of seniors. Also on-line banking, facebook and the production of on-line fotoalbums – such as Flickr or Picasa – are known to the participants. A special wish by the seniors: language controlled programmes should be extended. With increasing age it becomes more difficult to put texts into the computer and especially into mobile phones. “Talking is usually possible for a long time”, says Meinhard-Schiebel.
According to the Austrian statistics bureau, approximately half the people over 60 have access to the internet. Although the percentage of those using the net daily is lower – it will take some time until the digital gap will be closed. But the increasing numbers of the past years show: the so-called “silver surfer” generation increasingly uses the internet. In the year 2003 only 20,3% of 55 – 64 and 4,3% of the 65 – 74 year old persons, respectively were online, today the first group has risen to 52,8 % and the second to 28,2%.
KURIER, 26 November 2010
www.futurezone.at/stories/1664651/
In the agreement between the Social Democrats and the Green Party in Vienna (November 2010), at the initiative of the Green Party a separate chapter is devoted to the topic of older people.
Not as regards care or disabled people (which we also consider very important) but as persons who are active and participate fully in society – and who are not marginalized any longer.
Seniors are a growing segment of the population. This is not a problem, as some people think but a fulfilling task for politics. This task is to enable older people to live many beautiful, active and self-determined years. Especially as regards appropriate options for leisure, living, care and support.
More than 350.000 persons in Vienna are 60 years or older. They want and also are able to enjoy – after a life of hard work – many nice and active years. The city supports them in their mobility (Vienna public transportation system, pedestrian-friendly traffic measures), offers free space for their activities (in 172 pensioners’ clubs and senior meeting points), local supply by means of markets, education (from public libraries to adult education), adequate living, one of the best health systems in the world, but also adequate care and support, where it becomes necessary (by means of the numerous mobile social services, day care centres, flat sharing as well as care residences).
Housing projects such as generationen: wohnen (flexible designs, barrier freedom and social services) consider the needs of older residents and are increasingly becoming available. Also district projects which systematically develop improvements for older people in residential areas and offer self-determined living also in old age, are increasingly gaining importance.
Translation: Kitty Weinberger
The European Network of Green Seniors (ENGS) has been on its way since five years on the European level for Green politics for seniors.
In many European countries the life expectancy of seniors is rising.
Instead of thinking that this part of the population is a debit to our society and instead of shortening their pensions, the countries should make us of their valuable resources.
Especially elderly people are giving a big contribution to our society with their honorary engagement and their financial transfers to the following generations.
The Green seniors of Europe have no time for a peaceful retirement.
They are intensively working on new projects and concepts for a good and healthy life in old age, demand new generation contracts based on solidarity and publish a new book ‘Happy Ageing – another ageing in Europe is possible’ that will show the way to new important projects.
Besides projects that will mainly offer lifelong learning an support in everyday life, it will also contain models for alternative living in old age, exchange of volunteers, projects for civil participation, etc.
As ENGS we have in the last five years regularly participated at European conferences, are presently in contact with 14 European countries and are creating Green groups of seniors in these countries.
Representatives of these groups also have political mandates and are participating to bring a new style into senior politics with their important impulses.
A strong and committed team with chairman Tony Cooreman is happy to celebrate this five years anniversary accordingly and to engage ourselves with vitality in the next years. Because ‘elections are won with the seniors’, as an important market researcher once stated.
If you want to know more about us, visit our website
www.greenseniors.eu
