Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights

A/HRC/RES/33/18No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2016.

What other versions does this mandate have?

8 versions · 2009–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/60/18

2025A/HRC/RES/60/18Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rightsLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/HRC/RES/54/16Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rightsCompare with previous version
2021A/HRC/RES/47/25Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rightsCompare with previous version
2016A/HRC/RES/33/18Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rightsCompare with previous version
2014A/HRC/RES/27/11Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rightsCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

14 topics

Accountability Conferences Gender Equality Gender-Based Violence Guidelines Human Rights Information Dissemination International Obligations Maternal Mortality Morbidity Report Preparation Reproductive Health Technical Cooperation Women's Health

What does this mandate say?

12 operative paragraphs

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;

Encourages the High Commissioner to promote awareness and utilization of the technical guidance, as appropriate, by all relevant actors in order to accelerate the 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;

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;

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;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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What does this mandate say?

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