Maternal mortality and human rights

Maternal mortality is "one of the most serious human rights issues that we face today", said Paul Hunt, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, during a press conference on 25 October 2007. Every year, over 500,000 women die of maternal mortality, whether in childbirth or in complications relating from pregnancy, with 95 per cent of those deaths occurring in Africa and Asia. The data also show that "de-facto discrimination" takes place in the developed world towards indigenous and ethnic minority women. One of the most shocking aspects of the issue is that most cases of maternal mortality are preventable, by means of a few "well-known and not always very expensive" interventions.

At the press conference, Hunt called for the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold a special session on maternal mortality. He also praised the recent launch, at the conference "Women Deliver" in London, of a new international initiative on maternal mortality and human rights, in which he is involved. This initiative aims to reduce maternal mortality by:

• holding governments accountable for implementing effective and equitable policies and programmes;
• securing increased resources at the global and national levels; and 
• promoting understanding among, and providing expertise to, key stakeholders on addressing maternal mortality as a human rights issue.

Together with his colleague Judith Bueno de Mesquita of the Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex, the Special Rapporteur wrote a report on the contribution of the right to the highest attainable standard of health in reducing maternal mortality.

Reducing maternal mortality. The contribution of the right to the highest attainable standard of health
Paul Hunt & Judith Bueno de Mesquita, Human Rights Centre University of Essex, 2007