A/HRC/41/27 human rights-based approach to the response to HIV as a condition to achieve the end of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths. 45. Ms. Sango-Page described best practices in human rights-related work in Southern Africa. The People Living with HIV Stigma Index was led by people living with HIV who documented their own experiences, including with regard to discrimination, using their own data in advocacy with government and other stakeholders to address human rights violations. The Rights – Evidence – Action (REAct) tool was a monitoring system designed by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance to document human rights violations. Punitive and discriminatory laws, such as those criminalizing same-sex relations, sex work and drug use, and also consent laws and lack of legal gender recognition were serious barriers to the response to HIV leading to people being left behind; the speaker therefore called upon States to review and repeal such laws. She also called upon Member States, WHO and other stakeholders to consider the concerns of people living with HIV and key populations in discussions regarding universal health coverage, and to integrate their rights and views. Ms. Sango-Page called upon OHCHR and WHO to cooperate to ensure that human rights were recognized in the political declaration on universal health coverage, which the General Assembly is expected to adopt at the beginning of its seventy-fourth session. 46. The Special Rapporteur identified several key issues that had been raised during the discussions, noting that a better understanding of challenges would facilitate the replication of good practices. He suggested that a combination of “topdown” and “bottom-up” approaches would strengthen efforts as long as the necessary conditions were met, such as the attainment of the correct balance between international assistance and government funding, an enabling civil society space, and emphasis on data and evidence. Data should be used in a useful and accessible way, and should address not only human rights issues, such as discrimination and stigma, but also classical epidemiological indicators as well. During discussions, participants had considered the good practices followed by regional mechanisms; but good institutions alone were inadequate, and all stakeholders had a role to play in ensuring that regional mechanisms were accessible and that their decisions were implemented. Participants had noted the need to strengthen accountability in the response to HIV, and its relationship with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Special Rapporteur concluded that three policy actions should be strengthened in the response to HIV: popularizing participation, eliminating discrimination and making use of data. These three were particularly useful in resisting the current trends against human rights and the use of evidence. V. Recommendations 47. Participants made a number of recommendations during the consultation, particularly with regard to regional and subregional strategies and best practices: (a) States should remove structural barriers, including discriminatory laws and policies, and apply human rights-based approaches to the response to HIV, putting people living with HIV at the centre of their policies, programmes and practices. In order not to leave anyone behind, States should increase their efforts to reach the most marginalized women and adolescents, key populations vulnerable to HIV, including gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, people who use drugs, transgender people, and persons in prisons and other closed settings. Communities should be involved in the design, implementation and delivery of policies, programmes and practices. (b) States should review their laws in accordance with international human rights law. In order to improve the human rights aspect in the response to HIV, States and their parliaments could collaborate at the regional and subregional levels to develop human rights-based normative content to inspire the domestication of laws at the national level. In order to reach Sustainable Development Goal target 3.3 and to 13