Published on: September 16, 2014

Dr M R Rajagopal, Chairman of Pallium India, will be honored by Human Rights Watch with Dr. Alison Des Forges award this November.

Human Rights Watch will present Dr Rajagopal with the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism, at two dinners in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. The dinners are an opportunity to inform supporters of Human Rights Watch and others about the “access to pain relief” situation in India, and in particular about the important work that Dr Rajagopal and Pallium India are doing with palliative care. His work over nearly twenty years has contributed to development of India’s National Program in Palliative Care (NPPC) in 2012 and to the Amendment of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of India in 2014.

“Dr Rajagopal is one of the most eloquent and tireless advocates for palliative care I have ever met. His advocacy has given wings to the notion that letting someone suffer from treatable pain is a violation of human rights,” said Mr Diederik Lohman of Human Rights Watch.

The award is named after Dr. Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to Human Rights Watch’s Africa division for almost two decades. Des Forges was the world’s leading expert on Rwanda. Human Rights Watch’s annual award honors her outstanding commitment to, and defense of,human rights. It celebrates the valor of people who put their lives on the line to protect the dignity and rights of others.

Click to read the announcement at Human Rights Watch website.