UN Human Rights Council adopts groundbreaking maternal mortality resolution

29 September 2011

Source: Center for Reproductive Rights

A ground-breaking resolution was adopted yesterday by the UN's Human Rights Council, in which States reaffirm their commitment to addressing the root causes of preventable maternal deaths and disability.  

Maternal mortality is a human rights issue

Organizations like the Center for Reproductive Rights have been working tirelessly for the UN - through the Council and its human rights mechanisms - to pay serious attention to maternal mortality as a human rights issue. Every day, an estimated 1000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth, and each year over 10 million women suffer from infections, injuries or disabilities. The persistence of maternal deaths and disability from preventable causes - unsafe abortion, gender discrimination, and treatable complications during pregnancy - tarnishes the human rights record of many countries in the developed and developing world.

A human rights approach is necessary

International commitments made through the Millennium Development Goals, the UN Secretary General's Strategy on Women and Children's Health and others, have put the spotlight on improving strategies to tackle women's health. For the third year running, the UN's Human Rights Council has focused its attention on the global problem of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity. Yesterday, the Human Rights Council has once again delivered a clear message that without paying close attention to the key principles of a human rights approach - accountability, participation, transparency, empowerment, sustainability, international cooperation, and non-discrimination - attempts to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity will be insufficient and ineffective.

There are two reasons why today's resolution is ground-breaking. Firstly, an unprecedented number of countries (over 90) co-sponsored the resolution, demonstrating that States' commitment is consolidating and deepening. Secondly, the Council's resolution takes a crucial first step beyond the theory of the human rights-based approach and towards its practical implementation.

Examples from the US, Kenya and Philippines

In the United States, the human rights-based approach could support and encourage efforts to address disparities in access to and quality of healthcare for racial and ethnic minorities through the implementation of provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (healthcare reform). Such approaches might include the standardization of data collection among states to address gaps in service provision, and better understand the causes of poor health outcomes in different racial and ethnic groups.

The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights recently launched an official inquiry into human rights abuses in the context of sexual and reproductive healthcare, holding public hearings and gathering women's testimonies of their experiences seeking reproductive healthcare, with a view to improving the provision of these services. The terms of reference of this inquiry resonate with many of the key principles of the human rights-based approach - tackling discrimination, promoting participation and demanding accountability - and show the feasibility of implementing this approach through existing institutions, with a view to making improvements in policy and the delivery of reproductive health services.

The Philippines imposes criminal penalties on abortion without any clear exceptions, which means that a woman is unable to terminate a pregnancy legally or safely even if it poses a serious risk to her life or health. These restrictions lead women to seek clandestine abortions, often in unsafe or dangerous conditions. In 2008, roughly 1000 women lost their lives due to unsafe abortions and as many as 90,000 were hospitalized for complications from unsafe abortions. Applying a human rights-based approach in this context would require the Philippines government to decriminalize abortion on certain grounds because of its contribution to maternal mortality and morbidity.

States will be guided in implementing a rights-based approach

The new resolution paves the way for an expert-led workshop to be convened by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human rights, tasked with drafting technical guidance for States on implementing the human rights-based approach in their policies and programs to reduce preventable maternal mortality and morbidity.

Many NGOs around the world, alongside the centre for Reproductive Rights, have advocated for the Council to direct future work towards this practical approach, proposing the expert-led process of drafting technical guidance as an essential means to achieving effective, coordinated and coherent implementation of the human rights-based approach to eliminating preventable maternal mortality and morbidity.

This article, published by the Center for Reproductive Rights, has been reproduced by PSN. Minor changes and cuts may have been made for the purpose of brevity and relevance.