A human rights based approach for people with dementia

The human rights of people living with dementia: from rhetoric to reality, released by Dementia Alliance International (DAI), advocates for a more ethical pathway of support that includes the human right to full rehabilitation and full inclusion in civil society for people living with dementia. 

“This is a watershed moment for people with dementia across the world,” says Kate Swaffer, Chair, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of DAI.

“We are launching this landmark Dementia Alliance International guide because, as a direct result of DAI’s advocacy and a rights-based approach including access to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has just been adopted by Alzheimer’s Disease International.”

DAI is the international peak body, and voice of people who have been diagnosed with dementia. It wants people to ‘see the person, not the dementia’, and have a world where a person with dementia continues to be fully valued and included.

Ms Swaffer, who is also a member of the World Dementia Council, explains that the human rights of people with dementia lie at the heart of DAI’s work.

She says that people with dementia are frequently denied their human rights.

Access to the UN Disability Convention was one of Ms Swaffer‘s demands at the World Health Organisation’s First Ministerial Conference on Dementia held in Geneva in March 2015. 

There are currently more than 47 million people with dementia globally and, according to the World Health Organisation, there is one new diagnosis every 3.2 seconds. In Australia there are more than 353,800 Australians living with dementia.

Professor Peter Mittler, UN consultant on disability and education and active in promoting the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities says “What matters to us now is that people living with dementia should be empowered to use their undisputed right of access to this and to other relevant UN Human Rights Conventions, including a future Convention on the Rights of Older Persons.”

You can download a copy of the publication The human rights of people living with dementia: from Rhetoric to Reality here.

For more information about Dementia Alliance International visit joindai.org or contact Kate Swaffer.