Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights Follow-Up to Human Rights Council Resolution 11/8

Calls upon States to collect disaggregated data, including data disaggregated by age, rural/urban location, disability and other relevant criteria, in relation to maternal mortality and morbidity to ensure effective targeting of policies and programmes to address discrimination and the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized women and adolescent girls, and to permit effective monitoring of policies and programmes, including through the adoption of national-level targets and indicators reflecting the main underlying causes of maternal mortality and morbidity, and through the development of appropriate health programmes;

Encourages States and other relevant stakeholders, including national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations, to give greater attention and resources to preventable maternal mortality and morbidity in their engagement with the United Nations human rights system, including with the human rights treaty bodies, the universal periodic review and the special procedures;

Requests all States to renew their political commitment to eliminate preventable maternal mortality and morbidity at the local, national, regional and international levels, and to redouble their efforts to ensure the full and effective implementation of their human rights obligations, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and its review conferences, the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the goals on improving maternal health and promoting gender equality and empowering women, including through the allocation of necessary domestic resources to health systems;

Requests States to give renewed emphasis to maternal mortality and morbidity initiatives in their development partnerships and cooperation arrangements, including by honouring existing commitments and considering new ones, and the exchange of effective practices and technical assistance to strengthen national capacities, and to integrate a human rights perspective into such initiatives, addressing the impact that discrimination against women has on maternal mortality and morbidity;

Encourages States and other relevant stakeholders, including national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations, to take action at all levels to address the interlinked root causes of maternal mortality and morbidity, such as poverty, malnutrition, harmful practices, lack of accessible and appropriate health-care services, information and education and gender inequality, and to pay particular attention to eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls;

Invites the Office of the High Commissioner to engage in or, as appropriate, continue dialogue on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights with regional organizations, relevant United Nations agencies and organizations, including the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and other relevant special procedures, and the World Bank;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to invite States and all other relevant stakeholders, including regional organizations, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, relevant special procedures, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Bank, civil society and national human rights institutions, to submit information to the Office of the High Commissioner on initiatives that exemplify good or effective practices in adopting a human rights-based approach to eliminating preventable maternal mortality and morbidity;

Also requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare, on the basis of the above-mentioned submissions, an analytical compilation that includes an identification of how such initiatives embody a human rights-based approach, the elements of these initiatives that succeed in achieving reductions in maternal mortality and morbidity through a human rights-based approach, and ways in which similar initiatives could give effect more fully to a human rights-based approach;