A/HRC/12/WG.2/TF/2
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67. Consultations on the second review of the Cotonou Agreement, planned for 2010, will be
an opportunity to appraise its human rights provisions and consider proposals consistent with the
right to development criteria.
68. Because of their dependency on the export of commodities, remittances and foreign aid,
African, Caribbean and Pacific countries are particularly vulnerable to rising food prices,
declining commodity prices and the ongoing financial crisis, which greatly diminishes their
prospects for realizing the right to development. These prospects would be enhanced if countercyclical and economic stimulus measures and effective aid for trade programmes could be put
into operation.
69. Current negotiations for the conclusion of additional economic partnership agreements
provide an opportunity to consolidate the human rights approach to development as enshrined in
the Cotonou Agreement and to ensure that this approach applies to the agreements. The task
force is concerned that the regionalization resulting from the agreements risk eroding the general
negotiating position of African, Caribbean and Pacific States in their partnership relationship
with the European Community. Supporting the development efforts of weaker trading partners
should therefore be a priority.
70. The task force considers that the continuing dialogue with the partnership could benefit
from the formal presence of the representative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of
States in its meetings and from a meeting with one of the chief negotiators on behalf of the
Caribbean group. Indeed, its mission and assessment of the Cotonou Agreement are not complete
as long as it has not ascertained more fully the views of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States
and particularly its secretariat. Therefore, the task force will return to Brussels in late April 2009
to complete the dialogue.
5.
Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual
Property
71. The Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual
Property and the Global Strategy and Plan of Action are a positive development with the
potential of contributing significantly to target 8E of the Millennium Development Goals with
respect to innovation of and access to health products for diseases in developing countries.
72. The task force attaches particular importance to the congruence between the eight
elements of the Global Strategy and Plan of Action, designed to promote innovation, build
capacity, improve access, mobilize resources and monitor and evaluate the implementation of the
strategy itself, on the one hand, and the duties of States to take all necessary measures to ensure
equality of opportunity for all in their access to health services, as required by article 8.1 of the
Declaration on the Right to Development, on the other.
73. The Global Strategy and Plan of Action also seek action in a range of areas to achieve the
accessibility, affordability and quality of medicines in developing countries as part of the
normative content of the right to health. The task force acknowledges and supports the reference
made by the Strategy and Plan to the right to health but regrets that it does not refer to the
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