A/HRC/41/27 States criminalized and excluded key populations, and refused to fund programmes to promote and respect their human rights. This decline had also contributed to the shrinking of civil society space. He called upon the Human Rights Council, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UNAIDS, in consultation with communities and key populations and global health funding agencies, to develop a set of human rights-based guiding principles for health donors. After describing the violations of human rights, stigma and discrimination faced by key population groups, he urged United Nations agencies and Member States to join efforts to address this situation, and identified the Global Partnership for Action to Eliminate All Forms of HIV-related Stigma and Discrimination as a best practice in the response to HIV. 4. The Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Maria Nazareth Farani Azevêdo, spoke on behalf of the core group, which comprised Brazil, Colombia, Mozambique, Portugal and Thailand. She highlighted the centrality of human rights and of leaving no one behind in the response to HIV. She encouraged all stakeholders to join forces to address the challenge posed by HIV. Ms. Azevêdo recalled that, since 1990, the Commission on Human Rights, then the Human Rights Council, had consistently sought to address human rights challenges in the response to HIV. The relevant resolutions, initially proposed by Brazil and subsequently adopted by consensus, pioneered the adoption of a human rights-based approach in the response to HIV, until then promoted exclusively from a health perspective. Ms. Azevêdo recalled the importance of the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights as a reference for HIV policies worldwide. Council resolution 38/8 affirmed the need to achieve universal health coverage for all in the context of HIV. Noting that different regions of the world faced different challenges, she encouraged stakeholders to work together to identify solutions to local realities, thus epitomizing the spirit of the consultation. 5. The Deputy Executive Director a.i. of UNAIDS, Tim Martineau, pointed out that, globally, 37 million people lived with HIV; there were 1.8 million new HIV infections every year; some 22 million people were on treatment; there had been a drop in deaths of 34 per cent since 2010; and that 75 per cent of people living with HIV knew their status. There had been, however, decrease of only 18 per cent in new HIV infections since 2010. He expressed concern that people were being left behind: two thirds of all new infections were in sub-Saharan Africa, and one in four new infections among adolescent girls and young women. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, new infections had doubled since 2000, and outside of sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 47 per cent of all new infections were among key populations and their sexual partners. Insufficient investment in HIV treatment, an uncertain funding environment and the shrinking of space available for civil society had resulted in slow or even no progress in efforts to address the human rights barriers in the response to HIV. Respecting, promoting and fulfilling human rights in the response to HIV was vital to ensuring that no one was left behind. He stressed that addressing laws, particularly criminal laws, policies, gender inequality and discrimination in all its forms was essential to ending HIV. All laws criminalizing HIV transmission, exposure and nondisclosure, same-sex sexual conduct, drug use and sex work had an effect on the response to HIV. Law reform was a key element in the response to HIV, particularly in order to ensure that criminalized populations had equal and quality access to universal health coverage. Decriminalizing sex work could prevent more than 33 per cent of new infections among sex workers and their clients. The decriminalization of drug use could significantly decrease HIV infections among people who inject drugs. Lowering the age of consent to testing and treatment was correlated with the higher uptake of testing by adolescents. Despite the existence of human rights norms, frameworks and commitments, their translation into real action was lagging. He called for effective partnerships among governments, civil society, accountability mechanisms, human rights groups and health professionals to initiate programmes to end human rights abuses and to remove stigma and discrimination. 6. The Assistant Director-General for Communicable Diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Ren Minghui, stated that the right to health could be realized by strengthening capacity-building in public health. He stressed that the right to health was essential to the identity and mandate of WHO, permeating all its strategies and actions, including its new five-year strategy, adopted by Member States in May 2018. A core 3