The rights of elderly people and the social exclusion

The issue of the elderly people’s rights has been discussed more and more often in the broader context of human rights. There is much evidence from social life that these rights are not being respected to the extent they should be. Securing and respecting the rights of older the elderly is becoming a challenge for state authorities that uphold human rights and create the directions of social policy for the rights protection. It is especially important as the elderly people due to their age, health status, weakened social position, rarely become advocates of their own interests. They are victims of an unobvious and often invisible process of marginalization and self-exclusion from an active social life. The aim of this article is to sketch the phenomenon of the marginalization of the elderly in the context of mechanisms related to their functioning on the one hand, and age, and on the other to social attitudes towards seniors. There are presented the elderly people’s rights and basic conditions for the rights to be respected.