With our organisational members in over 70 countries, we provide a global voice on hospice and palliative care. The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) is an international non-governmental organisation focusing exclusively on hospice and palliative care development worldwide. We are a network of national and regional hospice and palliative care organisations and affiliate organisations. We believe that no one with a life-limiting condition, such as cancer or HIV, should live and die with unnecessary pain and distress. Our vision is a world with universal access to hospice and palliative care. Our mission is to foster, promote and influence the delivery of affordable, quality palliative care.

WHPCA es una red de organizaciones nacionales y regionales trabajando sobre el acceso a hospicios y cuidados paliativos, cuya misión es empujar, promover e influir en la oferta de cuidados económicos y de calidad.

WHPCA est un réseau d’organisations nationales et regionals travaillant sur les soins palliatifs et hospitaliers, dont la mission est de promouvoir et d’influencer l’accès à des soins palliatifs abordables et de bonne qualité.

Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA)

Esta decisión de la OMS pone en peligro una década de avances para permitir que millones de personas dispongan de acceso a sustancias fiscalizadas para aliviar el dolor. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

On the 22nd of May 2019, Congresswoman Katherine Clark and Congressman Hal Rogers, two members of the US House of Representatives, published a report 

(“Corrupting influence: Purdue and the WHO”1)

 claiming (falsely) that the development of two World Health Organization (WHO) guidance documents (

Ensuring Balance in National Policies on Controlled Substances 

Guidelines on the Pharmacological Treatment of Persisting Pain in Children with Medical Illnesses

 ), was influenced by the interests of Purdue Pharma. This influence was, according to the report, achieved through organizations and individuals serving the interests of the company (Purdue Pharma is the maker of OxyContin, a commercial brand of oxycodone). The report argued that by developing, distributing and promoting these guidelines, the WHO was helping the pharmaceutical company increase its market share and putting other countries at risk of replicating the US “opioid crisis.” The report contains serious factual inaccuracies and draws inaccurate and unfair conclusions. It includes misleading information, and by making false accusations of existing collaborations and alliances to advance pain relief and palliative care, concludes that there was corruption within WHO. No staff member of the offices of the US representatives contacted any of the organizations or individuals mentioned in the document to seek our responses to the allegations made in the report.

On June 19, the WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, sent a letter to the US Representatives informing them that the WHO had taken the Report’s concerns very seriously and that the agency had decided to withdraw the two guidelines, published in 2011 and 2012. The WHO has now published the statement in its website https://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/guide_nocp_sanend/en/ Unfortunately, this action provides credibility to a report not based on facts or scientific evidence and suggests that the development of these guidelines was inappropriately influenced.

WHO’s decision took all the academic, civil society, experts and organizations involved in the development of these guidance documents by surprise. Both documents were developed in order to improve the situation of millions of patients worldwide who suffer from lack of, or inadequate access to medications, including pain medications, like the patient quoted above. The guidelines were not commercially initiated, funded or influenced. Our primary focus has been, continues to be and will always be the patients and their families. Those working in the field have seen and experienced how unrelenting, excruciating pain affects individuals and families and the magnitude of the suffering it engenders.

Declaración de posicionamiento común sobre la decisión de la OMS de retirar los documentos de orientación

Atención diferenciada para comunidades diversas – La V Conferencia Internacional Africana de Cuidados Paliativos está organizada por la Asociación Africana de Cuidados Paliativos (APCA) y la Alianza Mundial de Cuidados Paliativos (WHPCA). Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Suscríbase a las Alertas mensuales del IDPC para recibir información sobre cuestiones relacionadas con políticas sobre drogas.

Differentiated care for diverse communities - 5th International African Palliative Care Conference, hosted by the African Palliative Care Association and the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance

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V Conferencia internacional africana de cuidados paliativos

A fin de alimentar el informe para la UNGASS que está siendo elaborado por la Oficina del Alto Comisionado para los Derechos Humanos, ONG de todo el mundo han presentado sus aportes sobre cómo la fiscalización de las drogas afecta los derechos humanos. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Based on Human Rights Council Resolution A/HRC/28/L.22, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is planning to draft a report on the impact of drugs and drug control on human rights in order to feed into the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs, which will be held in 2016.

In order to feed into the report, a series of NGOs submitted letters highlighting the impact of drug control on human rights. Please click on each link below to read these submissions:

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA)

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Contenido relacionado

Declaración de posicionamiento común sobre la decisión de la OMS de retirar los documentos de orientación

V Conferencia internacional africana de cuidados paliativos

ONG resaltan violaciones a los derechos humanos cometidas en nombre de la fiscalización de las drogas