By Heather Campbell Pope and Rizwan Khan ( July 3, 2026, 8:24 AM EDT) -- Eleven years ago, elder law scholar Israel Doron described the movement for a United Nations convention on the rights of older persons as a journey to Ithaka, borrowing from C.P. Cavafy’s famous poem. The destination matters, but so too does the path toward it — one marked by setbacks, detours and incremental progress. At the time, an international treaty remained largely aspirational. Yet this year, the United Nations took a historic step forward when a working group began the drafting process. After years of debate about whether older persons required a dedicated human rights instrument, the conversation has shifted to what it might contain....