Pain treatment as a human right Jonathan Cohen Open Society Foundations April 24, 2012

Human rights documentation

Development of the international legal framework

Human rights advocacy

Human rights documentation

I was in an accident at a construction site on 9 August 2004. A wall collapsed on me. People dragged me to the medical college hospital. For two days I had agonizing pain both in the back and the front. I felt like I was going very weak. I asked to see my children because I thought I would die. I was told that I would be OK ... The doctors said that the pain would go away [by itself]. There was no need to medicate it. I was on an IV and was given lots of medicines. But I was told that no medications were needed for the pain. I was screaming all through the night.

Human Rights Watch, India, 2009

I went to the chief doctor [of the hospital], the chief medical officer. [There was] again a scandal. The doctors said: ‘A fifth ampoule is an overdose [is too much]. Michael Jackson died of an overdose. Now they’re prosecuting an innocent doctor. And no one is supporting that doctor. It’ll be like with Michael Jackson.’ And I said: ‘But he screams from the pain, disturbs the neighbors; you don’t know how he howls, how much pain he has. People [neighbors] hear how he howls in the apartment. I can’t be in the apartment. I will go crazy the way he howls.”

Human Rights Watch, Ukraine, 2011

He often didn’t sleep at night. He’d be in agony because of the pain. Then he would sleep long in the morning. So they would arrive at 9 a.m. and he would be asleep. I would say: ‘Leave the medication. I’ll take the syringe. When he wakes up, that’s when it’s important for us to give him the injection. He’s still sleeping.’ [But they would wake him up and] he would say: ‘Nothing hurts right now. I’m sleeping. I don’t need it.’ But they, like zombies, would insist: ‘No, it’s necessary. We will not come another time. Your prescribed time is 9a.m. So they would inject him while he was sleeping because they had to do the injection and leave.

Human Rights Watch, Ukraine, 2011

Development of the international legal framework

“Relief from pain is part of the peaceful living that was guaranteed to every Indian under the ambit of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution . . . It is a fundamental duty of the government to extent such treatment to a patient and which then crystallizes as part of a right to peaceful living of a human bring, be he a citizen or otherwise.”

Kerala State Human Rights Commission, India, 2006

“[T]he Special Rapporteur is of the opinion that the de facto denial of access to pain relief, if it causes severe pain and suffering, constitutes cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment

or punishment, January 2009

Human rights advocacy

"States are under the obligation to respect the right to health by...refraining from denying or limiting equal access for all persons...to preventive, curative and palliative health services . . . [The Committee reaffirms the importance of] attention and care for chronically and terminally ill persons, sparing them avoidable pain and enabling them to die with dignity.“

UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 2000

“We urge you to request the Ukrainian government to investigate the current case and take appropriate measures to ensure that: (1) Mr Malinovsky gets access to appropriate pain medication without undue delay; (2) Medical staff responsible for denying Mr Malinovsky access to appropriate pain medications are held accountable; (3) Mr Malinovsky is rewarded appropriate compensation for the suffering he faced due to the unnecessarily suffering from pain and the failure of the government clinic to take appropriate steps to relieve his suffering.”

Human Rights Watch, Urgent Appeal to UNSRs on Health and Torture, January 2011

Resisting

Reframing

Restraining