26–30 October 2026, Palais des Nations, Geneva

Oral Statement
Plenary Discussion – Catalogue of Rights

Thursday, 29 October 2026
Bibiana Savin, CEO, Sage Advocacy, Ireland

Chair, distinguished delegates,

Imagine being an older person living with dementia in the home you have loved for decades. Your memory may falter, but you remain the same person—with the same values, hopes and right to shape your own life. Yet your wishes are disregarded, your voice is overridden and decisions are made for you.

Now imagine being admitted to hospital and remaining there for months—not because you need acute care, but because support to return home does not exist. With no real choice, you are moved to a nursing home far from your community and the people who matter to you.

Then imagine discovering that, while you were away from home and didn’t have access to your correspondence, people you trusted emptied your bank accounts.

Your voice, home and security have been taken from you. Where do you turn for clear information, trusted support, independent advocacy and protection of your rights?

Every day, Sage Advocacy supports older persons and survivors of institutional abuse facing realities like these in Ireland. Publicly exposed failures in Irish care settings led to our establishment in 2014. Since then, our mission has been to promote and protect our clients’ rights and dignity through information, support, independent advocacy and safeguarding from abuse.

Occasionally, in nursing homes, we see fundamental rights denied in practice: the right to liberty; the right to bodily integrity, including in the management of continence care; the right to consent to medication and surveillance technology; support for mobility; and freedom of movement.

Demand for our services is rising rapidly. It speaks to an urgent truth: older persons, whether or not they have reduced decision-making capacity, must be heard, safeguarded, and supported to retain autonomy, dignity and control of their assets. They must be free to make fundamental choices – where to live, how to be cared for and how to remain connected to their communities.

For more than a decade, Sage Advocacy has worked to make rights real in older persons’ lives: ensuring that unheard, dismissed or silenced voices are heard; challenging where necessary and collaborating wherever possible; and pressing for lasting systemic and policy change in Ireland and internationally.

Too often, older persons are defined by need, dependency or vulnerability—not recognised as equal rights holders. Ageing is a privilege most of us hope to experience, yet it is still framed mainly as decline. The rights of older persons are not someone else’s rights; they are our collective future. Strengthening their rights, dignity and autonomy today is an investment in the society in which we all hope to grow old.

We are here in Geneva with a shared purpose: to recognise older persons as equal citizens, rights holders and contributors—not as a “social problem”. Let us learn from one another and act with urgency. No one living with dementia or another life-limiting condition should be reduced to a passive recipient of care. No one should face injustice, exclusion or abuse. Every older person must have meaningful choices, guided by their will and preferences, with the support to live and die with the utmost dignity. These rights cannot remain on paper. We must make them real—for every older person, everywhere.

Thank you.

Watch Bibiana’s address at this link (03:15:30)

Sage Advocacy board member Patricia Rickard-Clarke was also in attendance in her capacity as Chair for Safeguarding Ireland (03:22:42)