The right to health services had to be taken from a theory to a reality, former president Mary Robinson has said.
Legal strategies for health as a human right provided only one dimension for putting those rights in place and making them happen, she told a conference in Dublin on tackling HIV and Aids.
Mrs Robinson, now president of the Ethical Globalisation Initiative in New York, told delegates that the importance of good research evidence was to separate the treatments and strategies that worked from those that did not.
More than 800 health specialists attended the event to discuss policies relating to the prevention and treatment of HIV and Aids around the world.
The conference was organised by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organisation providing information on healthcare, with the support of the Health Research Board.
Minister of State for Development Co-operation Conor Lenihan said that Ireland was to provide €60 million for the fight against HIV/Aids in Mozambique and €10 million for Lesotho.