A/HRC/5/3 page 24 long-term care are not covered by insurance, a great financial burden would be placed on older patients, whose right of access to health care would be severely restricted. The EU also recognizes the health-care sector as a potential generator of employment opportunities for skilled workers. With a greater number of older persons in need of care, the demand for health-care professionals is on the rise, but interestingly, with more professionals reaching the retirement age, the supply in this sector is shrinking. The shrinking supply of health-care professionals, in turn, raises health-care expenditure, thereby adversely affecting the financial sustainability of health care. This problem can be tackled by devising better human resource strategies. CONCLUSIONS 55. This report has demonstrated how a human rights-based approach can apply both to the theoretical considerations in terms of developing a consensus on the core characteristics of extreme poverty, and to the practical application of policies for the eradication of extreme poverty. The applicability of the notion of extreme poverty within a human rights framework will now have to be examined with respect to different country experiences in carrying out their anti-poverty programmes. The independent expert proposes to do so systematically in his next report. While the context-specific nature of the problems will be brought out through this future exercise, the overall general conclusion is that a human rights approach is a distinct value added in dealing with extreme poverty. -----