A/HRC/4/28 page 6 agencies gave careful attention to human rights and, in some cases, this deepened after 2000. In 2003, for example, UNAIDS buttressed its human rights work by establishing an expert Global Reference Group on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights. Presently, UNFPA is developing a training package on a human rights-based approach with a particular focus on gender equality and reproductive rights. Within WHO, the Special Rapporteur has found willing collaborators in some areas such as neglected diseases, mental health, child and adolescent health, essential medicines and sexual and reproductive health, as well as in some regional and country offices.5 WHO booklets 25 Questions and Answers on Health and Human Rights (2002) and Human Rights, Health and Poverty Reduction Strategies (2005) remain among the most accessible introductions to these subjects.6 11. The present decade has also seen a growing number of health and human rights cases decided at the national, regional and international levels; a sample of this case law is provided in section III of this report. Also, the academic literature on health, human rights and the right to health has deepened, while courses that teach these issues have proliferated.7 B. Civil society, health and human rights 12. Since 2000, one of the most striking developments has been in civil society. Non-governmental organizations working in low- and middle-income countries have always had a clearer appreciation of health and human rights issues than their counterparts working in high-income countries. In some countries, the Special Rapporteur has been deeply impressed by civil society’s commitment to, and familiarity with, the right to health. In Peru, for example, some civil society groups explicitly use human rights language, run right-to-health information campaigns, call for grass-roots participation in health policymaking, take health and human rights cases, and so on.8 Such health and human rights activism has coincided with the publication of a range of relevant materials in all regions, such as The Right to Health: A Resource Manual for NGOs.9 13. The increased commitment of civil society organizations to economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to health, has extended beyond the national level to international NGOs. For many years, Amnesty International was associated with a narrow range of civil and political rights. More recently, its global membership decided this had to change. According to its 2005 publication Human Rights and Human Dignity: A Primer on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: “In recent years Amnesty International has broadened its mission in recognition that there are many more prisoners of poverty than prisoners of conscience, and that millions endure the torture of hunger and slow death from preventable disease.”10 Moreover, this broader mission is beginning to translate into specific right-to-health initiatives.11 Other international NGOs - Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists, International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, International Service for Human Rights, Interights, and others - are also giving more attention to economic, social and cultural rights. The commitment varies from one organization to another and is often contested. Also, as argued below, much more needs to be done. Nonetheless, the general trend is unmistakeable and in the right direction. 14. Another important group of human rights NGOs is those mainly consisting of health professionals, such as Physicians for Human Rights and the International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations. In the 1990s, such groups tended to focus on the civil and