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The aim of this article is to present and analyze the most important provisions contained in the conventions of the Council of Europe with regard to rights of persons with disabilities. The abundant normative acquis of the Council does not offer a specific convention devoted this subject, but the issue of protecting the rights of persons with disabilities is governed by provisions of its various other conventions. The stipulations of the European Social Charter and the Revised European Social Charter are of crucial importance in this respect. With this in mind, the authors present the content and interpretation of Article 15 of both Charters and the position of the European Committee of Social Rights on this matter. The authors also point to the most important provisions of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – in particular with reference to the prohibition of discrimination – and to the relevant case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

The main aim of this study is to prove that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is not an effective tool to protect all older people because it does not take into account the specificities of ageism and discrimination based on older age. It does not regulat violence, neglect and abuse of older people, their digital exclusion, lifelong learning, preparation for old age, shaping a friendly environment for ageing or intergenerational solidarity. To prove the above assumption, I compare factors that led to the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with an initiative to adopt a global convention on the rights of older persons. Furthermore, I analyse the provisions of the 2006 Treaty, pointing out those that could be used as a model for a future Convention on the Rights of Older Persons. At the same time, I identify areas not protected by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but extremely important for older people. The analysis led to an assumption that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities should serve as a model for shifting a paradigm of an older person and old age. With a human rights-based approach, like people with disabilities, older people would start to be seen not as recipients of assistance, mainly medical, but as full members of society. Thus, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities should not weaken the motivation for adopting the new convention but should be considered its guide.