High-Level UN Declaration Is a New, Useful Advocacy Tool
The vast majority of UN member states supports the text of a painstakingly negotiated High-Level Political Declaration on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases released September 24, 2025. The draft declaration contains no fewer than four (!) references to palliative care, one of which is a standalone paragraph that owes its inclusion to the advocacy of WHO Secretariat staff and our sister global organization, the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance. It reads:
"(58). Develop, strengthen and implement, where possible, palliative care policies to support the comprehensive strengthening of health systems to integrate evidence-based, cost-effective, equitable and accessible palliative care services in the continuum of care, across all levels, with emphasis on primary care, community and home-based care, and universal coverage schemes [...]"
While the General Assembly was unable to approve the declaration, the countries that did support it have created an opportunity for their national palliative care organizations to advocate with their governments for better service availability. This is something to celebrate on World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, October 11.
Human Rights Council resolution misses the mark
We had less luck with the Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution titled "The human rights implications of drug policy" tabled by Colombia. This resolution, sadly, contains no operational paragraphs on palliative care medicines, although the resolution's preamble contains agreed text that:
"Reiterate[s] the need to enhance national efforts and international cooperation at all levels to promote measures that ensure the availability, affordability and accessibility of internationally controlled narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes, including for the relief of pain and suffering, within the framework of national legislation [...]"
and
"Affirm[s] that access to internationally controlled substances for medical and scientific purposes, including for palliative care and emergency medical care, contributes to the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health for all, in particular older persons [...]"
Any IAHPC member who lives in or near Geneva is welcome to volunteer to participate in these negotiations to ensure more action-oriented language in future HRC resolutions, and particularly the soon-to-be-drafted, binding Convention on the Rights of Older Persons. Please contact me for more information.
Resolutions are key advocacy tools for improved public palliative care services, as they represent the aspiration and commitment of all UN member states, your governments. National palliative care associations can leverage these commitments by offering themselves as partners to implement these aspirations on the ground in order to improve patient and family care.
Dateline: Vienna, September 30-October 3
Katherine Pettus delivers an IAHPC intervention at CND's Reconvened 68th session on controlled medicines. Photo thanks to a UN TV webcast.
A very positive “drug policy” and essential medicines development was on display in Vienna at the Thematic session of the 68th Commission on Narcotic Drugs, where an entire morning was spent discussing the pathological matrix of “regressive drug policies” as well as unduly restrictive policies and stigma around essential palliative care medicines in many countries. Member states heard how such policies and the associated stigma leave practitioners unwilling to prescribe and administer controlled medicines such as morphine to patients in their care, and patients and families find themselves afraid to take them.
IAHPC Board Member Dr. Ebtesam Ahmed, D.Pharm, served on a UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Panel of official and civil society experts, giving examples of best practices that are improving affordable availability in lower- and middle-income countries. [Read her statement.] I had the last word, closing out the session with a tribute, among other comments, to the dedication and lived experience of the late Salvadoran Ambassador HE Julia Villatoro, who chaired our side event on access to essential medicines at the reconvened CND session in December 2023.
You can watch the 2025 reconvened session on controlled medicines, including the informative UNODC panel with some new data on global availability disparities, on UN TV.
The final day in Vienna was taken up by a workshop titled "No Patient Left Behind: Access and availability of controlled substances for medical and scientific purposes in Africa,” organized by the UNODC, the African Union, and the Kingdom of Belgium. Dr. Olubusayo Akinola, representing the African Union Commission, outlined the mission:
"The charge before us is clear: to move from statements to measurable impact, from policy frameworks to morphine at the bedside, ketamine in the operating theatre, methadone in addiction treatment centers, and diazepam in emergency wards. Only then will No Patient Left Behind become more than a theme or a campaign; it will indeed become the reality of African health systems."
The conference room was filled with the Africa chapter of UNODC's Young Doctors Network, regulators from various African countries, African Union officials, and representatives of all the UN agencies tasked with transforming a clunky mid-20th-century legal framework for drug control into one that is fit for purpose to serve patients, including those with palliative care needs, in the 21st century.
The huge amount of commitment and enthusiasm in the room and online was inspiring. Delegates to the meeting identified barriers from their lived experience and discussed best practices, such as those in Uganda and Kenya (among others) that others can adapt to their particular national context. The record of the proceedings will be submitted as a conference paper to the 69th CND in March 2026. I will share it as soon as it is available.
Another highlight: SECPAL's conference
The theme of the 15th annual Spanish Palliative Care Association (SECPAL) Conference in Zaragoza was "El equipo interdisciplinar: Pilar de los Cuidados Paliativos" (The interdisciplinary team: pillar of palliative care).
It opened with a thoughtful lecture by University of Barcelona philosopher and theologian Dr. Francesc Torralba titled “El valor del cuidado a lo largo de la historia,” (The value of care through history). Dr. Torralba reviewed the concept of care in Greco-Roman culture, where Stoic philosophers promoted the ideal of moderation and balance between the care of body and mind, to medieval ideals of care based on the parable of the Good Samaritan. Dr. Torralba told the conference that contemporary female philosophers and political theorists, such as Carol Gilligan and Judith Butler, have developed a modern secular discourse of care to counter the distorted interpretations of autonomy and individualism that marginalize palliative care advocacy as a potentially mainstream practice. He concluded that care is a “classical practice” that has withstood many intellectual and popular trends that attempt to undermine it.
The first day also featured a workshop on the representation of palliative care in the media: “Debilidades en la información sobre cuidados paliativos: ¿Ha fallado el marketing?” (Palliative care information gaps: Has our marketing failed?).
Panelists recommended that palliative care advocates connect journalists with people who have lived experience of palliative care and can dispel misconceptions about it being only for the dying, only for people with cancer, or a close cousin of euthanasia. Read the new publication “12 Claves para un periodismo ético y responsable sobre cuidados paliativos” (Twelve tips for ethical and responsible journalism about palliative care”). Non-Spanish speakers can cut and paste the text into a digital translator. I submitted a poster on interdisciplinary advocacy teams for palliative care, and will speak about IAHPC’s work at the SECPAL celebration of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day in Madrid on Friday, October 10.
Regional WHO meetings
Fiji Cancer Society CEO Belinda Chan will represent the IAHPC at the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific on October 20-24, 2025. Her statement urges member states to adopt the Essential and Expanded Palliative Care Packages developed by the Global Access to Pain Relief (GAP) Project anchored by IAHPC. [See our story on the packages.] Dr. Afsan Bhadelia of Purdue University was our delegate at the Pan American Health Organization regional meeting in Washington, DC. Dr. Irena Laska from Albania will attend the 75th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe, taking place in Copenhagen at the end of October. Look for regional committee reports in the November advocacy column.
We are always grateful to IAHPC members who serve as IAHPC delegates at their own expense when they attend the annual meetings of WHO committees in their own regions to raise the profile of palliative care as a key component of primary care under universal health coverage.