A/HRC/29/33 and promoting the right to health, that is a symptom of important gaps in the realization of the right itself. 113. It is crucial to strengthen the trust and cooperation between public institutions and those representing the State and civil society actors representing the general public, including the most disadvantaged groups of society. The importance thereof should not be underestimated. Civil society plays a key role as agent of change, advocates good practices, provides independent monitoring and, in many instances, provides necessary services. Trustful partnerships between government agencies, State-run health-care services and the non-profit sector, including civil society, constitute one of the cornerstones of effective health systems and act as a guarantee for the effective realization of health-related human rights. 114. The role of medical doctors and other health-care professionals is also crucial. With the ongoing change of paradigm, from paternalistic top-down medicine to partnership between health-care providers and users, the medical profession should reconsider some of its traditional views. Health-care professionals need to strengthen effective self-regulatory practices and capacity-building activities within their professions so as to promote the best traditions of medicine and prevent ethical misconduct and human rights violations. 115. Education in the health-care sector is one important element in that regard. The doctrine of the “five star doctor”13 needs to be reaffirmed in the light of translating modern values and scientific evidence into everyday medical practice. Modern medical doctors need to be not only good clinicians but also effective community leaders, communicators, decision makers and managers. That doctrine should be complemented by a strong human rights-based approach and evidence gained from the modern public health approach. 116. Strengthening the human rights dimension in health-care education curricula would be in the interests not only users of health services but also of medical doctors and other members of the health-care workforce. Medical education, as well as medical and health research, should help in providing tools to address imbalances when power asymmetries lead to too much focus on the tertiary level of health care, biomedical technologies and other components of the excessively exploited biomedical model. 117. The Edinburgh Declaration on medical education14 should be recalled and education and research reoriented to the basics of social medicine through training in community settings and fostering social sciences and qualitative methods, which are as relevant as biomedical sciences and quantitative research. That would help in restoring the balance with a holistic approach to promoting the health and well-being of individuals and societies. 118. The role of private companies, such as pharmaceutical ones, should also be highlighted. The work of previous mandate holders has been crucial to underline their duties with regard to right to health, in particular the Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines (A/63/263, annex). The Special Rapporteur will be addressing those issues with a view to ending unacceptable practices and entrenched misconceptions. 13 14 Dr. Charles Boelen, “The five-star doctor: An asset to health care reform?” (WHO, Geneva). Available from www.who.int/hrh/en/HRDJ_1_1_02.pdf. See World Health Assembly resolution 42.39 (1989). 19