Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site
On this year's Human Rights Day, the spotlight is on the rights of all people — women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, the poor and marginalised — to make their voices heard in public life and be included in political decision-making.
In an article published on the APCA website, former APCA executive director, Dr Faith Mwangi-Powell, highlighted a key advancement in promoting palliative care as a human right through a side-event during the 17th Session of the Human Rights Council meeting in 2011.
Backed by Brazil and Uruguay and funded by the Open Society Foundation, the event 'Access to palliative care; a neglected component of the right to health' was monumental in advancing palliative care into the global debate toward its integration into a human rights framework.
In Africa, the palliative care response has grown at a steady pace over the last few years. How that care is provided and what resources are brought to its fulfillment varies enormously across the continent.
Cognisant of discrepancies in standards of care for people with life limiting conditions, palliative care providers across the globe have articulated a simple, but challenging proposition: that palliative care is an international human right.
Watch this Life Before Death video showcasing the need to reinforce pain control as a human right, both in Africa and around the world.
