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71.

Towards a Society for all Ages –
from Words to Deeds

STATEMENT
BY MR. VLADIMIR PETROVSKY
ON THE OCCASION OF THE INTENATIONAL DAY OF OLDER
PERSONS AND THE CULMINATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL
YEAR OF OLDER PERSONS

Salle des Assemblées, Palais des Nations, Saturday, 2 October 1999

I t is a great pleasure and honor for me to welcome you to the Pal-
ais des Nations on the occasion of the ninth International Day for
Older Persons which also marks the highlight of the International
Year of Older Persons. It is also quite appropriate that 1999 – the last year of
the millennium – has been dedicated to older persons, with the theme: “To-
wards a Society For All Ages”.

l wish to particularly thank the Geneva International Network on Aging
(GINA) for their leading role in this initiative as well as Mr. Guy Olivier
Second and the Republic and Canton of Geneva for their support in this
endeavor.

A dramatic increase in people's life expectancy is a demographic reality
which has emerged in the last decades of the twentieth century. The United
Nations has recognized the challenges posed by this profound change in the
age structure of societies at an early stage and has contributed to raising
awareness of the same. Now, one out of every 10 persons is aged 60 years or
older; by 2050, the UN projects that 1 person of every 5 and, by 2150, 1 of

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