A/HRC/29/33 in processes that affect them. These are the groups in most need of quality and human rights-friendly health-care services precisely because of their situation. 45. This departure from universal human rights principles and this selective approach, ignoring or not adequately addressing one or more rights of a group of the population, reinforces cycles of poverty, inequalities, social exclusion, discrimination and violence, and in the longer run has a negative impact on the health and development of society in general. 46. There are good health practices worldwide that emerge when culturally and socially appropriate programmes are used, involving and empowering individuals, families and communities. These practices challenge traditional barriers between health, education, social welfare and other sectors. For example, effective programmes can be developed to enable community support for preventing violence, particularly violence against women and domestic violence. Community-based initiatives and neighbourhood prevention activities can also be designed to provide education for first-time parents, focusing on child-parent relationships. Support to family planning activities can be put in place to prevent early or unwanted pregnancies through the provision of comprehensive sexuality education and information, and by providing access to a varied range of contraception methods. 47. The cooperation between sectors can also be beneficial to facilitate access to preschool education, especially for children of families at risk, and enable community readiness to accept and integrate children and adults with disabilities into all of the everyday life of the community. This approach can also offer opportunities for adolescents and youth at risk to find alternatives to youth violence by engaging them in community programmes that support recreation centres for older persons, thus contributing to the reinforcement of intergenerational links and improving the quality of human relationships in general. 48. The “policy approach”, if implemented effectively, creates valuable opportunities for social innovations through the empowerment of citizens, families, communities and societies at large. By using modern concepts of health promotion and public health, this approach can also facilitate the meaningful participation of all stakeholders and reinforce the protective factors and resilience of individuals and communities. B. Right to health policies: power asymmetries, unbalanced approaches and other challenges 49. The implementation of evidence-based medicine and public health science is often hindered by the departure from such evidence, resulting in unbalanced and selective policies and practices that hamper the full realization of human rights, including the right to health. One way to analyse the challenges to and opportunities for the effective realization of right to health is to focus on the need to balance the important elements of the right and to prevent tendencies and incentives which lead to power asymmetries and unfair policies and practices. 50. The imbalances in health-related policies and practices are often a result of power struggles and an outcome and sign of a lack of transparency, accountability and political will to follow established principles and standards. Such imbalances emerge often as a consequence of a departure from a holistic approach to human rights. This is reinforced by power asymmetries between stakeholders and interest groups within and outside of health sector. These selective policies and practices tend to lead to ineffective health policies and ineffective, even harmful, health-care practices and to violations of human rights. 9