On April 3-6, 2023, Tamar Gvaramadze, First Deputy Public Defender of Georgia, participated in the 13^th session of the UN Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWG) in New York, USA.

On April 4, at the panel discussion held within the framework of the session, Tamar Gvaramadze presented a report on problems relating to the realization of older people’s right to health care and access to health care services. The First Deputy Public Defender talked about the importance of the right to health and the difficulties related to its realization, emphasizing the importance of ensuring the unhindered realization of the right along with providing the principle of equality, as well as the need to approve a new international mechanism in order to create an effective normative framework for the protection of the rights of older people. She answered questions about the importance of the realization of the right to health care for the effective protection of other rights, including the right to life.

During the discussion held on April 5, Tamar Gvaramadze spoke about the challenges that older people face in Georgia as a result of social isolation and loneliness, and especially emphasized the negative impact of the restrictions established for the purpose of managing the pandemic.

On April 3, Public Defender's representative Nino Shalamberidze introduced the joint statement of European human rights institutions to the participants in the session, during which she spoke about the need to develop and adopt a new convention on the rights of older people, and presented a recommendation on the creaton of a working group between the sessions for this purpose.

Protection and promotion of the rights of older people is one of the important directions of the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia. The Public Defender describes the situation of the rights of older people in a parliamentary report every year, periodically monitors the institution of older people and presents the monitoring results in special reports. At the same time, the Public Defender’s Office actively participates in international and regional events; It is also an active member of the Working Groupson Ageing of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions and the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions.