A Human Rights Approach to End Maternal Mortality

On Monday, June 14, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) will relay a powerful message to the United Nations Human Rights Council: Preventable maternal death is a clear human rights issue and must be addressed as such.

This message is at the heart of the OHCHR’s new report on preventable maternal mortality, morbidity and human rights , which the OHCHR will formally present at panel discussion during the 14th session of the Human Rights Council. The report recognizes that a range of human rights are violated when governments do not take proactive steps to address high rates of preventable maternal death. It also notes that the high rate of maternal mortality around the world — 536,000 deaths in 2005 — reflects inequality and discrimination suffered by women throughout their lives. The report recommends a number of steps the Human Rights Council could take to further address maternal mortality as a matter of human rights.

The Human Rights Council requested the OHCHR to prepare a report as part of the Council’s resolution on maternal mortality, morbidity and human rights, which it adopted in June 2009. The Center played a leading role in advocating for the passage of the resolution, and contributed to the development of the OHCHR’s report, including by submitting a written statement to the OHCHR on the human rights dimensions of maternal mortality. The final report discusses many of the human rights issues addressed in the Center’s submission, including illegal and unsafe abortion as a major direct cause of maternal death, the disproportionate vulnerability of women from disadvantaged backgrounds to maternal death and the impact of broken health systems on women’s lives and health.

The Center encourages the Human Rights Council and its individual member states to welcome the OHCHR’s report and to continue to explore ways to undertake further work on the human rights aspects of maternal mortality. The Center also hopes that the Human Rights Council will encourage the OHCHR to submit the report to the General Assembly in advance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit in September as a powerful reminder of the importance of a human rights approach to achieving MDG Goal 5 on maternal health.