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This book argues that older people globally are experiencing widespread violations of their fundamental right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment through inadequate and coercive responses to their care needs. In response, the book advocates progressive interpretation and application of the anti-torture norm (which is currently enshrined in numerous international treaties and likely to be re-stated in a new United Nations Convention on the rights of older persons). The book identifies existing doctrinal rules and principles under the anti-torture norm, which are clearly relevant to older people’s experience of neglect and coercion in relation to care needs. It also highlights logical inconsistencies and ideological constraints in how norm appliers have so far interpreted the rule against torture and ill-treatment, thus hindering the norm’s effective application to older people’s care-related mistreatment. Using the concepts of dignity and vulnerability to analyse the ‘case study’ problems of inadequate continence care and deprivation of liberty for care, the book argues that the anti-torture norm should be understood to impose a positive obligation on states to ensure access to consensual care. This positive duty should be recognized to include an obligation to ensure access to decision-making support in the care context, an obligation to ensure access to self-advocacy support in the care context, and an obligation to provide consensual care services where people have insufficient resources to obtain the assistance necessary to meet their basic needs.
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