Deaths of older people need closer scrutiny to uncover abuse and neglect, UN expert says

Tidball-Binz said stereotypes about older people can strip deaths of individual attention and scrutiny, leaving signs of violence, mistreatment or failures of care unexamined because death is considered an expected consequence of age.

Unlawful deaths of older people are going unreported, inadequately investigated and insufficiently researched across the world, a UN expert said, urging governments to strengthen the systems responsible for identifying suspicious deaths and preventing abuse and neglect.

Morris Tidball-Binz, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, warned that ageism can obscure the circumstances of a person's death, with harmful assumptions about older people being frail, ill or close to death allowing preventable losses of life to be accepted as ordinary ageing.

His report calls for stronger investigations, medical and forensic procedures, data collection and institutional oversight, stressing that the growth of the world's older population makes protecting their right to life an increasingly urgent responsibility.

Assumptions about ageing can hide abuse and neglect

Tidball-Binz said stereotypes about older people can strip deaths of individual attention and scrutiny, leaving signs of violence, mistreatment or failures of care unexamined because death is considered an expected consequence of age.

Investigations that do take place may be handled by professionals without the expertise needed to recognise and document earlier or continuing abuse, including neglect that contributed to a death recorded as having natural causes.

The expert pointed to sepsis as an example, explaining that a death attributed to the condition could have resulted from prolonged abuse or neglect, making it essential to examine the circumstances behind the immediate medical cause.

Every potentially unlawful death of an older person must be investigated in accordance with the UN Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death, he said, identifying it as the leading standard for suspicious death investigations.

Professionals involved in these cases need training and equipment to recognise age-related vulnerabilities, respond to evidence of mistreatment and properly document findings that might otherwise be missed.

Overlapping discrimination creates additional risks

Age discrimination often operates alongside other forms of exclusion, leaving older women, people with disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, Indigenous older people and older migrants exposed to violence and neglect compounded by wider inequalities.

The report identifies circumstances requiring particular attention, including places where people are deprived of their liberty, healthcare settings, humanitarian emergencies, climate disasters and armed conflict.

Tidball-Binz called for responses tailored to the risks in each setting, supported by stronger preventive safeguards and institutional oversight so that protection does not depend solely on an investigation after someone has died. Better data collection and research are also needed to bring overlooked deaths into view and support efforts to understand and prevent the failures that place older people's lives at risk.

Proposed global instrument offers an opportunity for protection

The report comes as the UN General Assembly has established an open-ended intergovernmental working group to develop a legally binding instrument on the promotion and protection of older people's human rights.

Tidball-Binz described the process as an opportunity to strengthen protection worldwide and called for explicit provisions covering older people's right to life with dignity, together with obligations to prevent and investigate potentially unlawful deaths in every setting.

He urged states to give the issue sustained attention and take concrete action, making clear that protecting older people requires both preventing avoidable deaths and ensuring proper scrutiny when there are grounds to suspect a death was unlawful.