Dr. Katherine I. Pettus, PhD, IAHPC Advocacy Officer for Human Rights and Palliative Care, reports on key advocacy meetings in New York.
I spent 11 to 17 December 2016 at United Nations Headquarters in New York at the 7th Working session of the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing, raising awareness with partner organizations and member states about the need to ensure that palliative care services are included in all discussions about the rights of older persons. IAHPC co-organized a side event on palliative care for older persons with the Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA), and the New York and Geneva NGO Committees on Ageing.
The week began with an all-day workshop on Sunday at the New York University (NYU) School of Law to discuss how non-governmental organizations might support member states to develop a convention on the rights of older persons. There were several panels in the morning and afternoon with experts on human rights and ageing to discuss the prospects for the 7th Working Group and possible elements of a convention. Speakers mentioned that it is not too early to start thinking about 2018, the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This will be a good advocacy opportunity for the rights of older persons, as well as for palliative care more generally.
The well-attended side event, ‘How States Can Respect, Protect, and Fulfil the Right of Older Persons to Palliative Care’, took place at lunchtime on the first day of the week. As Chair, I introduced the work of IAHPC, as well as the panel, which was led by Dr. Stephen Connor, Executive Director of the WHPCA. Dr. Connor described the dire situation regarding lack of availability of palliative care for older persons globally. He was followed by Mr. Ivan Chanis, Chair of the Working Group of the Inter-American Convention on the Rights of Older Persons, who came to New York City from Panama to speak on the Convention’s stipulation of a right to palliative care, and best strategies for ratification. Other panelists were Dr. Diane Meier from Mt. Sinai Hospital and the Center to Advance Palliative Care, Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, Chair of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and Dr. Sooyoung Han, Founder of Care Rights, South Korea. The side event was both inspiring and informative, and set the tone for my interventions on the floor in the ensuing days. A detailed summary can be found here.
The Independent Expert (IE) on the Rights of Older Persons, Ms. Rosa Kornfeld Matte, gave her report to the Working Group on the second day, and took questions and comments from member states and civil society delegates. Ms. Matte’s report focuses on the gaps in the existing human rights framework, and the elements that need to be addressed in a proposed binding instrument, or convention on the rights of older persons. The report explicitly notes the palliative care gap, and the need to develop services for older persons. I thanked her in a brief statement on behalf of IAHPC and WHPCA.
The last day included an interactive dialogue with civil society and the Chair’s summary. I made a final statement on behalf of IAHPC urging member states to ensure that they integrate palliative care for older persons into their healthcare systems. The Chair responded positively to my statement, which had been echoed by several member states, and assured delegates that a right to palliative care would be an element of any new convention. The next session will be held in July 2017.
My January assignments are an intercessional meeting at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna on January 23, when partners will present on their efforts to improve access to controlled medicines as per the operational recommendations of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) Outcome Document. I then go straight back to Geneva to attend the World Health Organization Executive Board Meeting in late January and will do my best to keep palliative care on delegates’ radars throughout the session. Palliative care is explicitly mentioned, or indirectly implicated in the following agenda items, and I will remind delegates of the importance of ensuring rational access to controlled medicines in order to provide pain relief to patients and families. Stand by for a report in the February edition of the newsletter.
- Cancer prevention and control in the context of an integrated approach.
- Global Shortage of Medicines and Vaccines.
- Public Health Dimensions of the World Drug Problem.
- Draft global action plan on the public health response to dementia.
- Health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
- Preparation for the third High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases, to be held in 2018.
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