Palliative care is part of the right to health as recognised by the United Nations. Under this right, Governments must ensure that their citizens have access to “preventative, curative and palliative health services” (CESCR, 2000). However, these rights are all too seldom realised. This Human Rights Day, we examine the connection between palliative care and human rights. We also look at the work that has been done by human rights experts and palliative care advocates to ensure that the human right to palliative care is fulfilled.
Accessing palliative care
Imagine that you have been diagnosed with cancer, and that this is the disease that will kill you. Imagine that you have to process this information for yourself, as well as breaking the news to your family and friends and getting your affairs – both material and spiritual – in order.
Now imagine that these concerns are secondary to the debilitating, excruciating pain that obliterates all other thoughts from your mind. And your government does nothing to make sure that you get the cheap, effective medication that they promised to make available to you.
This is the reality of many millions of people in the world today, even though governments have an obligation under international law to ensure that their citizens have access to palliative care and pain relief. Denying such care violates the right to health and, in some cases, can even amount to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” (OHCHR, 1966).
In her response to International Human Rights Day, Joan Marston, CEO of the International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) said, “Every child with a life-limiting condition has the right to the best possible quality of life. We have in this world the palliative care knowledge, skills and treatments to relieve children’s suffering. On this day let us commit to working together to reach the 20 million children needing palliative care worldwide.”
Read the full article on the International edition of ehospice.
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