Maternal Mortality as a Human Rights Issue: Measuring Compliance with International Treaty Obligations

In: Human rights quarterly: a comparative and international journal of the social sciences, humanities, and law, Volume 21, Issue 3, p. 563-607

Abstract

Explores maternal mortality, arguing that joint UNICEF (United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund)-Center for Population & Family Health indicators can be evaluated in terms of human rights & employed for monitoring treaty compliance with respect to the availability & use of health care services by women with critical obstetric complications. Maternal morbidity & mortality & issues related to detection, treatment, & measurement are overviewed from a public health perspective, drawing on official statistics. Highlighted is how the UN Guidelines, which set the parameters for the newly developed indicators, are used as human rights tools, along with the rationale for & implications of implementing them. The legal context in which maternal mortality reduction becomes a state obligation as part of a guaranteed right to health is described, & three ways the UN Guidelines can be used to establish standards for enforcing said state obligation are proposed. 5 Tables. J. Lindroth