A/HRC/10/65
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sides of the same coin, and provided examples of tools and programmes of the Oslo Governance
Centre, relating to (a) nationally owned governance assessments that are disaggregated to capture
the experience of the vulnerable and marginalized and embedded in development processes; and
(b) knowledge-sharing from the field and partnership-building for capacity development in
cross-cutting issues, such as land governance and the equitable governance of services and
Millennium Development Goals sectors.
57. The Chairperson-Rapporteur invited the participants to an interactive dialogue on the
above presentations. The representatives of Bangladesh and the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as
North-South XXI, made statements, as did the Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the independent expert on the question of human
rights and extreme poverty. It was reaffirmed that corruption had a disproportionate impact on
poor people, for example, by increasing the cost and decreasing the quality of public services on
which people living in poverty depend. A human rights-based approach would greatly benefit the
fight against corruption by adding its central elements, such as access to information,
accountability and empowerment.
58. It was also noted that the traditional focus on anti-corruption had been entirely on the
national Government in developing countries, the corrupted but not corrupters. The latter are
often hidden in financial centres, transnational corporations, intermediary lawyers and consultant
services. It was stated that, in certain situations, bribes paid by transnational corporations could
amount to more than the official development aid given to certain developing countries.
Consequently, it was stressed that accountability for corruption at the international level is as
necessary as at the national level. Adequate laws, institutions, administrative procedures,
Ombudsmen, national human rights institutions and parliamentary scrutiny of public officials are
essential to eradicate an environment that fosters corruption.
Access to affordable essential drugs and health care
59. Richard Laing, a medical officer at Policy, Access and Rational Use, Medicine Policy and
Standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) made reference to the right to health and
stated that one way to measure the enjoyment of this right was through the analysis of access to
medicines. He noted that, in order to improve the availability and affordability of essential
medicines, it is necessary to have reliable evidence on medicine prices, availability, affordability
and price components. He commented on a survey tool developed by WHO and Health Action
International that facilitates data collection and analysis and provides a standard method that has
been used in more than 50 surveys in all regions of the world. The results have exposed many
instances of poor access to medicines including cases of unaffordable medicines for chronic
diseases, deficit of important medicines to patients at the local level, Governments not passing
on low procurement prices to their citizens, excessive mark-ups in the private sector and taxes
and duties being applied to essential medicines.
60. Margaret Ewen of Health Action International highlighted that it was essential that surveys
have an impact on policies. She provided several positive examples of policy changes following
medicine price and availability surveys. There are multiple policy options to reduce the price of
medicines, such as improving procurement efficiency (national pooled purchasing, procurement
by generic name), ensuring adequate, equitable and sustainable financing (health insurance
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