States continue to fail older people at UN 07/04/2021 The 11th session of the UN’s Open-ended Working Group on Ageing took place at the end of March against the backdrop of the continued COVID-19 pandemic and in the aftermath of some of the gravest violations of older people’s rights. Less than one year earlier 146 states from around the world had committed to promoting and respecting the rights of older persons, responding to calls to ‘cull’ older people in the media and the serious violations of rights in care homes and discriminatory age-based restrictions on older people’s movement. Eleven months on, only eight of those who made that commitment took part in the discussion on COVID-19 and its impact on older people at the meeting of the UN Open-ended Working Group on Ageing.