A/HRC/32/25 the necessary treatment to them, which was unjust and needed to be rectified with programmes to address their specific vulnerabilities. 15. She stressed that efforts to scale up HIV testing and treatment services would remain devoid of meaning and elusive without a full recognition of human rights in AIDS programmes and policies. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community was still living in fear, and the criminalization of drug users needed to be eliminated. She emphasized that access to affordable medicines was a human right, and that people had to be put ahead of profits. In that regard, she pointed out how trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership could endanger access to life-saving commodities. 16. Ms. Lithur presented her experience of fighting HIV/AIDS in Ghana, which had included working as a human rights lawyer, and supporting people affected by HIV/AIDS at her human rights clinic. She recalled that the clients for whom she had been an advocate were not able to access legal remedies or redress for human rights violations. They faced increased vulnerabilities and were often the victims of various forms of human rights violations. She noted that gender-based violence was prevalent, in a context where discrimination and poverty were widespread. For example, police officers tasked with enforcing the law and protecting citizens were often involved in sexual assaults on young sex workers, while service providers in health care, social services and law enforcement were unable to assist. 17. Speaking about what the most effective strategies were, Ms. Lithur referred to advocacy, research, direct interventions at all levels, and the use of international, regional and national laws and conventions. She had used these strategies to strengthen the legal and policy framework, and had conducted a comprehensive legislative audit in Ghana to identify gaps and initiate action to repeal, amend and review laws, in order to create a more favourable legal environment. The audit report had been instrumental in creating the national HIV policy in Ghana in 2011, and an HIV law under consideration by the Cabinet. She had also been supported by the United Nations Population Fund to research human rights violations carried out against female sex workers by police officers. This had led to the development of curricula and then to the training of police officers and key populations, on HIV/AIDS. She had also conducted the first-ever training programme, for service providers, on key populations and human rights, including for the Department of Social Welfare, the Police Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit, and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice. A human rights clinic had been set up in 2008, and by the end of 2015 it had provided support to 1,568 persons. Finally, she noted the establishment of a pro bono lawyers’ network comprising 100 lawyers registered to deal with HIV-related cases. 18. Dr. Bermudez said that barriers to access to medicines included intellectual property rules, monopolies, oligopolies and unaffordability. The world had been struggling fiercely for 20 years to strike a balance between trade and health, or between innovation and health, and it had failed. Brazil was one of the first countries in the world to establish a national HIV/AIDS response programme, in 1985. The Brazilian response was based on a human rights approach, with efforts to ensure universal access to prevention and treatment, including through special measures to promote non-discrimination and civil society participation. A comprehensive approach, whereby both prevention and care would be addressed through local public production and through public-public and public-private partnerships, was currently at risk due to the looming treatment crisis. 19. The appointment of 16 members to the High-level Panel on Access to Medicines, in December 2015, with two former presidents as Co-Chairs, was an indication of the importance that the Secretary-General of the United Nations placed on the issue of access to medicines, and a recognition that in spite of all the progress made in health care, millions of people had been left behind. The scope of the panel’s mandate was to make proposals on 6