CDPDJ - Charter

A general outline		The right to protection against exploitation
	Rights and Freedoms		Right
	Discrimination		Risk factors
	Procedure of investigation		How the Commission proceeds

Legal basis of the right to be protected against exploitation

	Whenever the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse intervenes in order to enforce the rights of an aged person to be protected against any form of exploitation, it must proceed under section 48 of the Charter. Section 48 "Every aged person and every handicapped person has a right to protection against any form of exploitation. Such a person also has a right to the protection and security that must be provided to him by his family or the persons acting in their stead." Under the Charter, the Commission has a mandate to investigate cases of infringements upon the right to be protected against exploitation (s. 71).
Characteristics of the right to protection against exploitation
	Explicitly tied to the right to personal security and inviolability and freedom (s. 1), to the right to the safeguard of one's dignity (s. 4) and to the right to the peaceful enjoyment and free disposition of his property (s. 6); The Commission can investigate, even without the consent of the victim (s. 74, par. 3); Cases can be referred to the tribunal without the victim's written consent (s. 83).
Meaning of the right of aged persons to be protected against exploitation
	A person is deemed to exploit another person whenever that person takes advantage of the other person's vulnerability, because of her age, in order to satisfy his own needs, thus inflicting a prejudice to the other person. The exploitation may be: Of a financial or material nature: when the victim provides money or goods to the abuser; Of a physical nature: whenever the victim is beaten, neglected, etc. by the abuser; Psychologically: the victim is threatened or attacked verbally; the victim is threatened by his abuser concerning his own security, his living environment, or other questions that provoke the victim's anxiety; Emotionally: the abuser threatens to abandon the victim, to prevent him from seeing other loved ones, to take him away from his living environment, etc. N.B. The harm and damage can consist of a single occurrence or a series of events. The living environment of the victim can be either: the family; a private home; a public home.