A/HRC/33/23 I. Background 1. The technical guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach to the implementation of policies and programmes to reduce and eliminate preventable mortality and morbidity of children under 5 years of age (see A/HRC/27/31) was requested by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 24/11 and was presented to the Council at its twenty-seventh session in September 2014. 2. In its resolution 27/14, the Council welcomed the technical guidance and urged States to disseminate and apply it as appropriate in the design, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of laws, policies, programmes, budgets and mechanisms for remedy and redress. It called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and others, to continue the dialogue on the issue of preventable mortality and morbidity of children under 5 years of age and to prepare a report on the practical application of the technical guidance and its impact and present it to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-third session. The present report is submitted in accordance with that request. 3. The present report is the first follow-up report on prevention of child mortality and the implementation of the technical guidance. It is presented at the same time as the second follow-up report on maternal mortality, which focuses on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (A/HRC/33/24). Given their close links, the reports should be read in conjunction with each other. 4. The technical guidance presented specific human rights guidance, organized according to the policy cycle of planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, review, redress and international cooperation. The present report provides an overview of activities undertaken by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and other partners, including WHO, to implement the technical guidance. It also highlights some of the areas that need further focus and support at international level. II. Latest progress on child survival 5. The life of every child is unique — its loss is a tragedy. If that loss is preventable, the tragedy is even bigger, as an irreplaceable life could have been spared. Without the child surviving, no other rights have meaning. 6. Substantial progress has been achieved in the past decades in reducing child mortality. The global number of child deaths has declined from 12.7 million in 1990 to 5.9 million in 2015. At the country level, about a third of all countries have reduced child mortality by two thirds or more, including Cambodia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, the Niger, Rwanda, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. An additional 74 countries reduced their under-5 mortality rates by at least half and another 41 countries by at least 30 per cent.1 7. That overall progress has been the result of many different factors, including renewed political commitment and major newborn and child health initiatives in recent years. Advances in immunization and the treatment of childhood infections, improvements in health services and medical technology, and overall respect for human rights, including 1 GE.16-11320 Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, “Levels and trends in child mortality: report 2015” (2015), p. 3. 3