RES/33/18 Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights

GE.16-17459(E)



Human Rights Council Thirty-third session

Agenda item 3

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 30 September 2016

33/18. Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human

rights

The Human Rights Council,

Recognizing that preventing maternal mortality and morbidity is one of the human

rights priorities for all States, and reaffirming that all human rights are universal,

indivisible, interrelated, interdependent and mutually reinforcing,

Recalling its previous resolutions on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity

and human rights,

Reaffirming the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Programme of

Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, and their review

conferences and outcome documents, and reaffirming also the resolutions and agreed

conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women,

Welcoming the efforts of the World Health Organization to prevent maternal

mortality and morbidity, taking note of World Health Assembly resolution 69.2 and report

A68/16, and recalling the global commitment to the reduction of maternal mortality and to

universal access to reproductive health,

Taking into account General Assembly resolution 70/1 of 25 September 2015

entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, and its

call to take the bold and transformative steps urgently needed to shift the world on to a

sustainable and resilient path, to ensure that no one will be left behind and to make efforts

to reach the furthest behind first,

Taking note of the Secretary-General’s renewed Global Strategy on Women’s,

Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, and recognizing the important role it may play in

reducing preventable maternal mortality and morbidity,

Recognizing the importance of strengthening coordination between all relevant

United Nations agencies, in accordance with their respective mandates, in reducing

preventable maternal mortality and morbidity,

Stressing that reducing maternal mortality and morbidity with full respect of States’

human rights obligations and commitments will require efforts across the 2030 Agenda for

Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International

Conference on Financing for Development,1

Recognizing the positive contribution that the work of the Human Rights Council,

including its universal periodic review mechanism, may make to national, regional and

global efforts in relation to preventable maternal mortality and morbidity,

Reaffirming that States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social

and Cultural Rights have an obligation to take steps to achieve the full realization of the

right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental

health, including sexual and reproductive health as an integral part of this right, while also

having an obligation to guarantee the exercise of this right without discrimination,

Recognizing that sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights are, in

accordance with the Beijing Platform for Action and the Programme of Action of the

International Conference on Population and Development, and their review conferences and

outcome documents, integral to the progressive realization of the right of everyone to the

enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and that

comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care and services contain the interrelated and

essential elements of availability, accessibility, affordability, acceptability and quality, on

the basis of non-discrimination and formal and substantive equality, while including the

need to address multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination,

Emphasizing that realizing the rights of women and girls, which are equal to those of

men and boys, in the context of health and safety requires the provision of differential

services, treatment and medicines in accordance with their specific needs throughout their

life cycle, which are distinctively different to those of men, and the elimination of the social

and economic barriers that may make them more vulnerable;

Reaffirming that the human rights of women include a woman’s right to have control

over, and to decide freely and responsibly on, matters related to her sexuality, including

sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence, and that equal

relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction,

including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and

shared responsibility for sexual behaviour and its consequences,

Recognizing the importance of identifying, within the framework of the Sustainable

Development Goals, appropriate national indicators in reducing maternal mortality and

morbidity, with full respect for States’ relevant human rights obligations and commitments,

Bearing in mind the need to take measures, such as collecting disaggregated data

and conducting surveys, to ensure that no one is left behind, especially women experiencing

multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, and that everyone is accounted for in

official statistics,

Deeply concerned that, despite the impressive reductions in maternal mortality rates

achieved since 1990, according to the World Health Organization, in 2015, there were an

estimated 303,000 maternal deaths of women and girls, which were largely preventable,

and that many more women and girls suffer serious and sometimes lifelong injuries, which

have severe consequences for their enjoyment of their human rights and their overall well-

being,

1 General Assembly resolution 69/313.

Affirming that a significant reason for the high rates of maternal mortality and

morbidity in developing countries is the lack of adequate development and infrastructure in

certain areas,

Recognizing that there are large disparities in maternal mortality and morbidity rates

between countries, but also within countries, and between women with a high and a low

income, and between those living in rural as against urban areas, and noting with concern

that the risk of maternal mortality is highest for adolescent girls under 15 years of age, and

that complications in pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death among

adolescent girls in developing countries, and recognizing also that the risk of maternal

mortality and morbidity is exacerbated in armed conflict and humanitarian emergencies,

Deeply concerned that there are continuing violations of the right of everyone to the

enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including sexual

and reproductive health, which have a negative impact on rates of maternal mortality and

morbidity, and that the full enjoyment of this right remains a distant goal for many women

and girls throughout the world,

Regretting the multitude of factors that can lead to maternal mortality and morbidity,

including lack of accessible and appropriate health-care services, information and

education, lack of access to emergency obstetric care, poverty, all types of malnutrition,

harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation,

denial of contraception, unsafe abortion, discrimination against women, gender inequality

and gender-based stereotypes,

Convinced that greater political will and commitment, international cooperation and

technical assistance at all levels are urgently required to reduce the unacceptably high

global rate of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, and that the integration of a

human rights-based approach can contribute positively to the common goal of reducing that

rate,

Recognizing the need for enhanced cooperation aimed at strengthening capacities

and promoting adequate transfer of technology on mutually agreed terms to developing

countries in order to prevent maternal mortality and morbidity in those countries,

Acknowledging that the failure to prevent maternal mortality and morbidity is one of

the most significant barriers to the empowerment of women and girls in all aspects of life,

the full enjoyment of their human rights, their ability to reach their full potential and to

sustainable development in general,

1. Urges all States to renew their political commitment to eliminate preventable

maternal mortality and morbidity at the local, national, regional and international levels,

and to strengthen their efforts to address multiple and intersecting inequalities and to

remove all barriers to access to sexual and reproductive health facilities, services, goods

and information, and education, to ensure the full and effective implementation of their

human rights obligations, and their commitments as addressed in the Beijing Declaration

and Platform for Action, the Programme of Action of the International Conference on

Population and Development and the outcome documents of the review processes,

including the commitments relating to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive

rights, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable

Development Goals, considering the Goals on improving maternal health and promoting

gender equality and empowering women, and other interlinked Goals, by ensuring universal

access to quality maternity, sexual and reproductive health-care services, including through

international assistance and cooperation, the allocation of domestic resources to health

systems and the provision of the necessary information and services in relation to the right

to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including the sexual and

reproductive health of women and girls;

2. Requests States and other relevant actors to give renewed emphasis to

maternal mortality and morbidity initiatives in their development partnerships and

international assistance and cooperation arrangements, including by strengthening technical

cooperation to address maternal mortality and morbidity, including through the transfer of

expertise, technology and scientific data, and exchanging good practices with developing

countries, while honouring existing commitments, and to integrate a human rights-based

perspective into such initiatives, addressing the impact that discrimination against women

has on maternal mortality and morbidity;

3. Urges States and encourages other relevant stakeholders, including national

human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations, to take action at all levels,

utilizing a human rights-based approach to address the interlinked causes of maternal

mortality and morbidity, such as lack of accessible, affordable and appropriate health-care

services for all, and of information and education, poverty, all types of malnutrition,

harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation,

early childbearing, gender inequalities and all forms of discrimination and violence against

women, and to pay particular attention to eliminating all forms of violence against women

and girls, especially adolescent girls, while ensuring the meaningful and effective

participation of women and girls in the relevant processes;

4. Also urges States to take steps to ensure that laws, policies and practices

respect women’s equal right to decide autonomously in matters regarding their own lives

and health by repealing discriminatory laws and combating gender stereotypes and

behaviours that discriminate against them;

5. Takes note of the report of the Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights on the follow-up on the application of the technical

guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach to the implementation of

policies and programmes to reduce preventable maternal mortality and morbidity;2

6. Calls upon all relevant actors, including Governments, regional

organizations, relevant United Nations agencies, national human rights institutions and civil

society organizations to, within their respective mandates, strengthen their efforts to reduce

preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, including through, inter alia, the application

of the technical guidance, as appropriate, when designing, implementing and reviewing

policies and evaluating programmes to reduce preventable maternal mortality and

morbidity, while ensuring the meaningful participation of women and girls in all decisions

that affect them;

7. Calls upon all relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes,

within their respective mandates, to provide technical cooperation and assistance to States,

upon their request, to support their efforts to implement commitments regarding maternal

mortality and morbidity, and their efforts in the application of the technical guidance;

8. Calls upon States to assess accountability mechanisms, where they exist, in

relation to maternal mortality and morbidity, including the monitoring of inequities, while

ensuring access to justice for women and girls, and to build accountability into

interventions and strategies, to monitor the functioning and effectiveness of those

mechanisms and processes and to take remedial action to ensure they are responsive to

human rights;

9. Encourages the High Commissioner to promote awareness and utilization of

the technical guidance, as appropriate, by all relevant actors in order to accelerate the

2 A/HRC/33/24.

realization of the rights of women and girls and the achievement of Sustainable

Development Goal target 3.1, considering its possible interlinkages with other Sustainable

Development Goals;

10. Decides to convene, at its thirty-fourth session, a panel discussion on

preventable maternal mortality and morbidity as a human rights priority for all States,

including in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

Development, and that the discussion shall be fully accessible to persons with disabilities;

11. Requests the High Commissioner to prepare, from within existing resources,

in consultation with States, United Nations agencies and all other relevant stakeholders, a

follow-up report on good practices and challenges in the application of a human rights-

based approach to the elimination of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity,

including through the utilization of the technical guidance by States and other relevant

actors, including the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Development

Programme, UN-Women and the World Health Organization, and to present it to the

Human Rights Council at its thirty-ninth session;

12. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

40th meeting

30 September 2016

[Adopted without a vote.]