In a speech delivered at an international meeting on “the role of ombudsman institutions in the protection of the rights of the elderly,” Benalilou urged to place the issue of “the increasing number of marginalized elderly numerically” at the heart of the missions of ombudsmen and their interventions, in order to ensure the rights of this category in the virtual world and to enshrine the achievements of human rights, said a statement by the institution of the Ombudsman of the Kingdom.
Ensuring “digital equality for all ages” is a compelling need, said Benalilou, adding that its neglect in the intervention strategy of the ombudsmen is a legitimization of the reality of discrimination between “the digital citizen” and “the non-digital citizen”.
Noting that the post-Covid phase has marked an obvious transformation in the exercise of certain rights related to public services that are now accessible on the Internet, sidelining a large category of older people who suffer in silence, Benalilou stressed the importance of fighting against digital exclusion through a battery of public management mechanisms, but also by the creation of partnerships between the public and private sectors to improve access to digitization for this social category.
In this perspective of highlighting the right of the elderly to full social inclusion, the ombudsman of the Kingdom pointed out that the issue “cannot be reduced to remote access to rights and services”, calling for the creation of a virtual environment conducive to the elderly, which accompanies their willingness to adhere to the digital transformation.
In this regard, Benalilou called for the humanization of services and procedures provided electronically using digital solutions, strengthening of the legal framework to ensure the right of older people to citizen participation, as well as the establishment of a digital assistance service “to protect their personal data from the dangers of the Internet”.
