A/HRC/33/40 purposes, the WTO Secretariat reaches out to all stakeholders through the WTO Public Forum or activities in several regions in developing countries. Question 4 • The WTO Secretariat engages actively with other international organisations and also participates in numerous joint initiatives. • In the wake of the global food crisis in 2008, the UN Secretary General established the High Level Task Force on Global Food Security Crisis (HLTF) involving more than 20 international organizationsb towards a coordinated and synergic response to the crisis. The WTO Secretariat has participated in the HLTF deliberations since its inception and contributed very actively to the formulation of the joint policy framework (called Comprehensive Framework of Action) to assist the various stake holders in dealing with the global food security challenge. • Specifically on the issue of Right to Food, the Framework advises the national governments and other stakeholders to be guided by the “Voluntary guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of food security”c adopted by governments at the FAO Council in 2004. • The WTO Secretariat also contributes to and participates in other international efforts to support global food security including in the deliberations of the G20 and the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). • In the WTO Committee on Agriculture, a number of observer international organizations are regularly invited to participate in the CoA meetings. The CoA undertakes annually a dedicated discussion on food security-related aspects relevant to LDCs and net food-importing developing countries and a number of organizations active in the domain of food security (like the FAO, WFP) are specifically invited to contribute to that debate. • The long-term objective of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture is to establish a fair and market-oriented trading system through a programme of fundamental reform. The agricultural reform programme is furthered through the negotiations. The negotiations on agriculture take place in the context of the Special Sessions of the Committee on Agriculture and are based on WTO Members’ contributions and proposals. Negotiation, ratification and implementation process Question 5 • The WTO TRIPS Agreement was consciously crafted and carefully negotiated to safeguard policy space, particularly in the vital area of public health. For the first time in a multilateral treaty, it expressly articulated the role of the IP system as a policy tool intended to advance broader public policy objectives: it stated that the IP system should promote both technological innovation and the transfer and b c 30 Both the WTO and UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights are represented on the Task Force. The guidelines recognize the primary responsibility of States for the realization of the right to food and advises them on a repertory of actions consistent with their international obligations. The agricultural reform programme launched under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture is specifically acknowledged in the Guidelines as a contributory factor to strengthening an enabling environment for the progressive realization of the right to food. GE.16-11938