Recalling the ICW Resolution adopted in Bangkok 1991 "Care for the terminally ill",
Aware that 5.5 billion people are living in countries with no access to pain medicine stronger than aspirin for late stage cancer, AIDS, surgery, gender related pain when giving birth and after acts of violence and other treatable suffering,
Requesting the Human Right to the highest attainable standard of health and the dignity of all human beings,
Aware that according to the World Health Organization, an essential medicine like morphine must be available, affordable and accessible to all human beings in order to alleviate preventable suffering,
THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN CALLS ON ITS NATIONAL COUNCILS:
• To urge their respective governments, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and relevant organisations to ensure access to controlled medicine such as morphine and opioids to treat pain and suffering from war wounds, surgery, Cancer, AIDS etc.;
• To ensure that governments provide technical, educational and legal support to regions with inadequate and insufficient access; and
• To support organisations like the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care in working towards these goals.
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Source: International Council of Women (ICW-CIF) — 34th General Assembly, Izmir, Republic of Turkey, May/June 2015. Resolution No. 3.
