Poor Access to Pain Treatment: Advancing a Human Right to Pain Relief, M.E.C. Gispen (2010)

Date: 01 July 2010

This report addresses the fact that pain relief and palliative care services, including the licit use of opioids for medical purposes, are unavailable in over 150 states – particularly developing countries, where the need for such treatments is highest. The report notes the many barriers to accessing pain treatment, including the current interpretation of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which places states’ compliance with the convention at loggerheads with their human rights obligation to ensure access to pain treatment. The report responds to this problem by arguing that this ‘major public health deficit should be addressed under the human rights framework’; specifically, the right to health is interpreted to include a right to pain relief as part of the right’s minimum core.

Citation: M.E.C. Gispen, ‘Poor Access to Pain Treatment: Advancing a Human Right to Pain Relief’, Report to the International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations (2010)