A/HRC/20/26 35. Other initiatives include the International Drug Purchase Facility (UNITAID), which extends access to most impoverished groups by means of funds generated through taxing airfare purchases to negotiate lower prices for essential medicines, accelerate the distribution of medicines and create incentives for developing new treatments. It has catalysed the development of nine new paediatric HIV medications, leveraged price reductions of up to 60 per cent for several key treatments, and greatly enhanced access to treatment for children.35 36. Access to the Internet and information communication technologies is an increasingly important area of action.36 The Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights stressed that Governments must respect and protect freedom of information and expression, including on the Internet to ensure the implementation of article 15 of the Covenant.37 With the Internet emerging as a critical platform for scientific and cultural flows and exchanges, freedom of access to it and maintaining its open architecture are important for upholding the right of people to science and culture. 37. Significant gaps in computer use and access to the Internet for reasons of income, education, gender and geographic location persist. 38 In response, interesting initiatives have been adopted. For example, Estonia has ensured a rate of access to the Internet of 90 per cent, including a broadly accessible online network of resources and services available to researchers, students and teachers.39 India has promoted access for poor communities. 40 Other programmes include providing computers to children and students (Greece, Portugal, Uruguay), computer training for women, refugees and other forced migrants (Azerbaijan), extending telecommunication networks to reach remote ethnic minorities (Viet Nam) and adopting a list of universal services, including public fixed telephone networks enabling quality Internet access (Serbia).41 Another noteworthy example, the Global Digital Solidarity Fund, launched by Senegal and supported by several States, aims at ensuring “affordable and fair access to the information technologies and their contents for everybody, especially marginalized groups” and promoting “such access as a basic right in both the public and private domains”. 42 38. The Special Rapporteur notes the initiatives of WIPO to increase the availability of scientific and technical information in developing countries, such as the Access to Research for Development and Innovation programme, and to support open access to scientific knowledge. In its response, WIPO suggests that “new models of communication and open access to educational resources and scientific literature, particularly via digital means, should be developed based on national and regional experiences.” A priority in the WIPO Development Agenda “is to promote the role of IP rights in enhancing wider and more user-friendly distribution of content as a tool to promote innovation and scientific advancement as well as for reducing the “Digital Divide’”.43 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 See www.unitaid.eu/. A/HRC/17/27. See E/C.12/Add.107, para. 63, and E/C.12/LYB/CO/2, para. 39. See Towards Knowledge Societies, UNESCO, 2005, p. 29, and Eric Rhodes, “Bridging the Digital Divide”, Century Foundation, 2000. For example, the Tiger Leap programme (www.tiigrihype.ee). Gurumurthy, Singh and Kasinathan, “Pro-poor access to ICTs (see footnote 26). See also United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2001: Making New Technologies Work for Human Development, 2001, p. 35, and http://ubislateway.com/. On measures promoting Internet access, see also the responses from Argentina, Cyprus, Germany, Guatemala and Peru. See www.dsf-fsn.org. In particular, Agenda recommendations 19, 24 and 27. 11