Globally, around 15 per cent of the population are living with some kind of disability. 1 An estimated 13 per cent of people worldwide are over the age of 60.2 More than 46 per cent of those who are over the age of 60 have a disability.3 Humanitarian principles require that humanitarian assistance and protection are provided on the basis of need, without discrimination. No one should be excluded from humanitarian action, either deliberately or inadvertently.
Yet there is still limited capacity among humanitarian actors to fulfil this commitment. Discrimination based on disability, age and gender often combines with other forms of discrimination to deny older people and people with disabilities their right to assistance and participation in humanitarian action.