At the heart of humanitarian action are the principles of humanity and impartiality. All people have equal value and dignity; the exclusion of an individual or a group on the grounds of nationality, religion, or politics is contrary to the humanitarian ethos [1]. We suggest that neglect on the grounds of age should be added to this list. But first, what do we mean by “older”? Variation in life expectancy between countries makes it difficult to agree upon the age at which someone becomes old. The United Nations (UN) definition is 60 years and older, but in developing countries, where most humanitarian crises occur, 50 years is an appropriate cut-off and the one we use in this article
