The European Association for Palliative Care gets more involved in the European Union

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The European Association for Palliative Care gets more involved in the European Union

6 December 2016

The EAPC has recently become more involved in the activities of the European Union (EU). In 2015, we were invited to join the Civil Society Forum on Drugs (CSF) within the EU. This group was formed many years ago to provide expert advice to the European Commission (EC) on drug control and management – see an earlier post on the EAPC Blog.

Over the past year, the CSF has been helping the EU prepare for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drug Control (UNGASS). This took place in New York in April 2016 and an outcome document was negotiated and then adopted by the UN General Assembly. The EU had provided significant input on how to incorporate a health and human rights approach towards drugs for this UNGASS and, as part of the CSF, the EAPC was able to push for a section on the availability of medication for pain control within the EU statements. This was included in the final UNGASS outcome document, and had been supported by various non-governmental organisations and UN agencies, including the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care, the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance, Human Rights Watch and the World Health Organization. This was the first time, in the history of modern global drug control, that access to controlled substances for medical purposes was given such prominence in the debates and final declaration.

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