A/HRC/7/11 page 5 8. In November, the Special Rapporteur co-organized with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) a workshop on mainstreaming sexual and reproductive health rights into the work of the United Nations human rights system. The workshop was hosted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva. 9. In December, the Special Rapporteur gave the first annual lecture on malaria and human rights, co-organized by the UK Coalition against Malaria and the European Alliance Against Malaria. 10. Throughout the reporting period, the Special Rapporteur had a number of consultations, in addition to those already mentioned, on the draft Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines, including with the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) and the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. 11. The Special Rapporteur is extremely grateful to all those who have given him the benefit of their advice, support and time. II. HEALTH SYSTEMS AND THE RIGHT TO THE HIGHEST ATTAINABLE STANDARD OF HEALTH 12. The last six decades of international and domestic policy and practice have confirmed that health is not only a human rights issue but also a fundamental building block of sustainable development, poverty reduction and economic prosperity. Recently, there has also been growing recognition that a strong health system is an essential element of a healthy and equitable society. In any society, an effective health system is a core institution, no less than a fair justice system or democratic political system.1 13. Yet according to a recent publication of the World Health Organization (WHO), health systems in many countries are failing and collapsing. “In too many countries” health systems “are on the point of collapse, or are accessible only to particular groups in the population”.2 Too often health systems “are inequitable, regressive and unsafe”. “Health outcomes are unacceptably low across much of the developing world, and the persistence of deep inequities in health status is a problem from which no country in the world is exempt. At the centre of this human crisis is a failure of health systems.”3 1 L. Freedman, “Achieving the MDGs: Health systems as core social institutions”, Development 2005, vol. 48, No. 1, p. 19-24 (available at http://www.palgrave-journals.com/development/journal/v48/n1/pdf/1100107a.pdf). 2 Everybody’s Business: Strengthening Health Systems to Improve Health Outcomes, WHO, 2007, p. 1 (available at http://who.int/healthsystems/strategy/everybodys_business.pdf). 3 Ibid.