Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights

A/HRC/RES/47/25View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2021.

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?

9 topics

Anti-Discrimination Measures Health Care Delivery Human Rights Maternal Mortality Morbidity Reproductive Freedom Reproductive Health Women's Health Women's Rights

What does this mandate say?

17 operative paragraphs

Urges all States to eliminate preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and to respect, protect and fulfil sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, in accordance with 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 the right to have full control over and decide freely and responsibly on all matters relating to sexuality and sexual and reproductive health, free from discrimination, coercion and violence, including through the removal of legal barriers and the development and enforcement of policies, best practices and legal frameworks that respect bodily autonomy, and to guarantee universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, evidence-based information and education within a human rights-based approach, including for family planning, safe and effective methods of modern contraception, emergency contraception, universal access to health care, including quality maternal health care, such as skilled birth attendance and emergency obstetric care, safe abortion when not against national law, and the integration of sexual and reproductive health into national health strategies and programmes for all women and girls, including adolescents;

Urges States to ensure the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health-care services, including mental health and psychosocial services and sexual and reproductive health-care services, free of coercion, discrimination and violence;

Calls upon States, also in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure continuity of sexual and reproductive health-care services, including access to maternal and newborn care, and other essential maternal and child health support and services, safe abortion when not against national law, modern forms of contraception, screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, screening and treatment for cervical cancer, prevention of vertical transmission of HIV, nutrition and mental health services;

Also calls upon States to address the underlying determinants of health, such as gender discrimination and socioeconomic factors, including poverty and malnutrition, which render certain women and girls, including adolescents, more vulnerable to maternal morbidities, such as obstetric fistula, uterine prolapse, post-partum depression and infertility, among others;

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 available, accessible, acceptable and quality health-care services for all, and of information and education, including evidence-based comprehensive sexuality education consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, lack of access to medicines and medical equipment, all types of malnutrition, poverty, stigma and lack of confidentiality of medical patient records, lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation, poverty, underdevelopment, shortages in human and material resources facing health-care systems, shortages in humanitarian assistance and funding shortages affecting hospitals, technical assistance, capacity-building and training needs, harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, early childbearing, gender-based inequalities and discrimination, and to take concrete measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls;

Calls upon States to promote human rights-based and gender-responsive multisectoral and cross-disciplinary coordination of policies, programmes, budgets and services designed to prevent and treat maternal morbidities with the active participation of all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, and especially the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and girls at the national, local and community levels, and to promote social accountability mechanisms to monitor these policies, programmes, budgets and services in order to accelerate the elimination of maternal mortality and morbidity and the achievement of universal access to sexual and reproductive health;

Urges States to strengthen the capacity and resourcing of health-care systems and the health workforce, to provide the essential services needed to prevent and treat maternal morbidities, including through increased budget allocations for health, including sexual and reproductive health-care services, and the deployment and training of midwives, nurses, obstetricians, gynaecologists, doctors, surgeons and anaesthesiologists, in accordance with international medical standards, and to ensure holistic social integration services, including counselling, education, family planning, socioeconomic empowerment, social protection and psychosocial services, so that women and girls living with maternal morbidity can overcome stigma, discrimination, ostracism and economic and social exclusion;

Also urges States to strengthen their research, data collection and monitoring and evaluation systems to promote reliable, transparent, collaborative and disaggregated data collection on the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of sexual and reproductive health-care services for all women and girls, in order to support more comprehensive policies to prevent and address maternal morbidities;

Calls upon States to increase awareness and the visibility of maternal morbidity as a human rights concern, including through more targeted research in this area, allocation of sufficient resources and dedicated efforts to ensure the availability, particularly for women and girls, of information on the causes of specific maternal morbidities and their prevention;

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 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, which focuses on maternal morbidity as a human rights issue, and encourages all stakeholders to consider the recommendations contained therein;

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 and girls has on maternal mortality and morbidity;

Urges States to ensure that laws, policies and practices respect bodily autonomy and privacy rights and the equal right to decide autonomously in matters regarding one’s own life and health by bringing laws and policies concerning sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, including international assistance policies, into line with international human rights law and repealing discriminatory laws relating to third-party authorization for health information and health-care services, and combating gender stereotypes, norms and behaviour that are discriminatory;

Also urges States to ensure access to justice and accountability mechanisms and timely and effective remedies for the effective implementation and enforcement of laws and standards aimed at preventing violations of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including sexual and reproductive health, especially those aimed at preventing maternal mortality and morbidity, such as by informing women and girls of their rights under relevant normative frameworks and by improving legal and health infrastructure and removing all barriers in access to legal counselling, assistance and remedies;

Calls upon States to ensure gender equality, women’s rights and children’s rights through inclusive public awareness-raising and evidence-based initiatives, including in schools, through the media and online, and by incorporating curricula on all women’s and girls’ rights into teacher training courses, including the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence and discrimination, and ensuring universal access to evidence-based comprehensive sexuality education consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, in and out of school settings;

Also calls upon States to convene and support multi-stakeholder meetings involving health workers and marginalized women and girls at multiple levels to discuss the application of a human rights-based approach to the elimination of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, to identify opportunities within national-level processes and to prioritize concrete areas and plans for action;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare, 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, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and the World Health Organization, and to present it to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-fourth session;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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Who created this mandate?

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What does this mandate say?

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