The following documents contain text related to access to pain treatment and palliative care as fundamental human rights.
In addition, there are declarations which may be used to support this notion.
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Joint Declaration and Statement of Commitment - Palliative Care and Pain Treatment as Human Rights

Main Documents

• Access to pain relief: an essential human right. A report for World Hospice and Palliative Care. Published by Help the Hospices for the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance, 2007. 

• Derechos Humanos y Cuidados Paliativos. By Lisbeth Quesada Tristan. Rev Med Honduras, 2008; 76: 39-43 (In Spanish) 

• General Comment No. 14: The right to the highest attainable standard of health. Substantive issues arising in the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Twenty-second session 25 April-12 May 2000, WHO Geneva.  
  
• Human Rights Watch Report “Please Do Not Make Us Suffer Any More…Access To Pain Treatment As A Human Right.”  

• Korea Declaration on Hospice and Palliative Care, March 2005. 

• Pain Management: A fundamental Human Right. Frank Brennan, Daniel B. Carr, and Michael Cousins. Journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, Vol. 105(1), 2007. 
  
• Pain Relief as a Human Right. By Frank Brennan and Michael J. Cousins.  IASP Pain Clinical Updates. Volume XII, No. 5, March 2004.

• Palliative Care and Human Rights: A Resource Guide. Open Society Institute and Equitas. New York: OSI, 2007.
  Available in English    and Spanish  

• Palliative Care as a Human Right. By Frank Brennan, Liz Gwyther and Richard Harding. Sponsored by and Calvary Health Care, Hospice and Palliative Care Association of South Africa, University of Cape Town, King’s College and Open Society Institute. 

• Palliative Care as a Human Right Power point presentation by Dr. Liz Gwyther at the African Association for Palliative Care Conference, September 2007. 

• Palliative Care as an International Human Right. By Frank Brennan, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. Vol 33(5), 2007. 

• Palmer A, Tomkinson J, Phung C, Ford N, Joffres M, Fernandes KA, Zeng L, Lima V, Montaner JSG, Guyatt GH, Mills EJ. Does ratification of human-rights treaties have effects on population health? The Lancet, Volume 373, Issue 9679, Pages 1987 - 1992, 6 June 2009.

• Panama Proclamation – Pain and Palliative Care as Human Rights. Federation of Latin American IASP Chapters, May 2008.  Available in English    and Spanish  
  
• “Please, do not make us suffer any more…” Access to Pain Treatment as a Human Right. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2009.

• Protection of the human rights and dignity of the terminally ill and the dying – Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, Recommendation 1418 (1999). 

• UN Human Rights Council. Statement by Paul Hunt, Special Rapporteur on the Right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. March 11th, 2008.  

• A human rights approach to the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. Xavier Seuba. Bulletin of the WHO Organization, Vol 84(5)2006. 

• AIDS: Palliative Care . UN AIDS Technical Update, UNAIDS Best Practice Collection, 2000. 

• Annual report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary General. Access to medications in the context of pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Report of the Secretary-General 

• Annual Report on Human Rights in the World 2007 and the European Union's policy on the matter. European Union, 2008. 

• Increasing access to essential medicines in the developing world: UK Government policy and plans, Department for International Development (DFID), 2004. 

• Is access to essential medicines as part of the fulfilment of the right to health enforceable through the courts?
  Hans V Hogerzeil, Melanie Samson, Jaume Vidal Casanovas, Ladan Rahmani-Ocora The Lancet,Vol 368 July 22, 2006

• Essential medicines and human rights: what can they learn from each other? Hans V Hogerzeil. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2006;84:371-375. 

• History, principles, and practice of health and human rights. Sofie Gruskind, Edard Mills, Daneil Tarantola. The Lancet 370: 449-455. 

• Los Cuidados Paliativos en VIH/SIDA en Latinoamerica: Propuesta para un enfoque integral en la atencion en salud. By Peter Selwyn and Liliana De Lima. Revista Actualizaciones en SIDA Vol 16 (59) Marzo 2008. (In Spanish) 

• Morphine consumption in the world: Countries with the highest and lowest consumption in 2006. Pain and Policy Studies Group, WHO Collaborating Center in Policy and Communications for Cancer Care, Madison, 2008. 

• Right to Health Fact Sheet - World Health Organization 

• The Right to Health Fact Sheet No.31 – UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights and World Health Organization 

• UNAIDS/UNHCR International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights: 2006 Consolidated version. 

• UN Human Rights Council Seventh session Agenda item 3. Promotion and Protection of all human rights civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Paul Hunt. January 2008. 

• UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN, 1948 

• World Health Organization: A declaration on the promotion of patients' rights in Europe, WHO Regional Office Europe, 1994. 

Useful Links

Amnesty International - www.amnesty.org

Health Action International - http://haiweb.org

Human Rights Watch - http://www.hrw.org

Pain Initiative at the United Nations - http://www.pain-initiative-un.org/pain-initiative4/

United Nations Development Programme - http://www.undp.org

United Nations Human Rights Portal - http://www.un.org/rights

United Nations Human Rights - Treaty Bodies Database - http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - http://www.ohchr.org

World Health Organization - Access to Controlled Medications -
http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/access_Contr_Med/en/index.html

World Health Organization – Special section on Human Rights - http://www.who.int/topics/human_rights/en/

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