A/HRC/36/19 reform of the intellectual property regime of South Africa, in particular on how to implement TRIPS flexibilities to expand access to medicines. 17. Lastly she underscored the Panel’s calls for Governments to review the situation of access in their countries in the light of human rights standards and principles and States’ obligations to fulfil them. 18. Mr. Taubman highlighted how, for the WTO, the Doha Declaration was a milestone in placing the legal, practical and policy implications of TRIPS squarely within the public health setting. It still remained an important benchmark for policymakers, particularly given the Sustainable Development Goals, and the growing network of regional and bilateral trade agreements. However, he also highlighted how the practical question of how best to navigate through that policy space and to flex those flexibilities was still open. 19. To address that, he stressed the need to further strengthen coordination and collaboration across the multilateral system. He drew attention to the importance of trilateral cooperation among WHO, WIPO and WTO to develop policy and practical coherence on public health, including recognition of the human rights dimensions of access to medicines and health technologies. Important initiatives undertaken so far included the WTO annual flagship capacity-building workshop on trade and health that addressed both the need for accessibility and innovation. 20. He also emphasized the need for greater transparency, referring to the abovementioned WHO report on access to hepatitis C treatment as a good example. He underlined the importance of an information platform that supported all Governments to make effective use of the rights and flexibilities within the system and to fulfil their related human rights responsibilities. 21. Mr. Bombelles underscored the mission of WIPO to lead the development of a balanced and effective international intellectual property system that enabled innovation and creativity for the benefit of all. Intellectual property had transcended the confines of legal issues relating to patents, copyrights and trademarks, and touched on many of the most important public policy issues of our time, including health, environment and food security. 22. The activities of WIPO in addressing access to medicine, in the broader context of innovation, technology transfer and capacity-building, included: updating the patent status of products on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines; catalysing more research and development for neglected diseases; and using trilateral cooperation to drive policy coherence on innovation, trade and health. The WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents commissioned empirical studies on a diverse range of patent-related issues, including exceptions and limitations to patents. At the request of Member States, WIPO also provided legislative and policy assistance within the framework of the multilateral system. He drew attention to the WIPO databases that provided access to information on the many forms of intellectual property rights, including patents, trademarks and copyrights. WIPO experts also prepared patent landscape reports on a diverse range of medicines and other technologies, including on medicines to treat HIV/AIDS, vaccines and selected medicines for non-communicable diseases. 23. Mr. Correa described actions that had been taken at the national level to overcome the incoherence between intellectual property policy and human rights law, with a focus on the role of human rights and public health impact assessments, as recommended in the Panel report. He highlighted examples, such as the study carried out by the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand on the potential impact on public health of the intellectual property provisions of the free trade agreement that Thailand had been negotiating with the United States of America before those talks stalled. He suggested that the Human Rights Council could develop guidelines and methodologies for such impact assessments, which should not just be designed for implementation before the negotiation of bilateral or regional agreements to increase intellectual property protection, but also to introduce appropriate methodologies that address the consequences of the adoption of certain intellectual property rights protections. 5