Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights

A/HRC/RES/54/16View 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 2023.

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?

10 topics

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

What does this mandate say?

27 operative paragraphs

Urges all States to eliminate preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, to respect, protect and fulfil sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights 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 by addressing social and other determinants of health, 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 services, evidence-based comprehensive sexuality education, safe and effective methods of modern contraception, emergency contraception, universal access to health care, including quality maternal health care and maternal mental health services, such as skilled birth attendance and emergency obstetric care, safe abortion, when not against national law and post-abortion services and care, and the integration of sexual and reproductive health into national health strategies and programmes for all women and girls, including adolescents;

Calls upon States to ensure equitable coverage and timely access, by means of national plans, policies and programmes, to health services, in particular emergency obstetric and newborn care, skilled birth attendance and family planning, that are available, accessible, including affordable, acceptable and of quality, in particular in rural and remote areas and the poorest urban areas;

Calls upon all States and relevant international organizations to take measures and support programmes that are aimed at combating undernutrition in mothers, in particular during pregnancy and breastfeeding;

Urges States to ensure that response and prevention measures for present and future health emergencies are grounded in human rights standards and integrate an age- and gender-responsive approach, with a combination of emergency and long-term measures, including in relation to sexual and reproductive health, to be developed and implemented with the full, equal, meaningful and inclusive participation and leadership of women and girls at all levels of decision-making, and to protect individual autonomy and freedoms;

Also urges States to strengthen health systems, to ensure the integration of sexual and reproductive health services into national health policies and to guarantee that health facilities, goods and services relating to women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health are available, accessible, including affordable, acceptable and of quality, including by facilitating access to telemedicine or telecommunications to support sexual and reproductive health services and the distribution of information about contraceptives and family planning, through toll-free services, and putting in place creative arrangements to support victims and survivors of gender-based violence, for example, hotlines and online services;

Further urges States to prioritize sexual and reproductive health services, including maternal health services, from the outset of health emergencies and to provide them with sufficient funding, supplies, equipment and infrastructure to ensure that all women and girls have uninterrupted access to such services, without discrimination, including maternal health services, contraception, safe abortion services, when not against national law, and post-abortion care;

Urges States to ensure the availability, accessibility, including affordability, acceptability and quality of health information and services, including mental health and psychosocial services and sexual and reproductive health-care information and services, free of coercion, discrimination and violence, and to take measures to address any misinformation and disinformation, online and offline, regarding sexual and reproductive health services and barriers to access to such services;

Calls upon States, also in the context of health emergencies, to ensure the 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, and post-abortion care, modern forms of contraception, screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, preventative vaccination, screening and treatment for cervical cancer, prevention of vertical transmission of HIV, nutrition and mental health services;

Also calls upon States to ensure a more holistic approach to the humanitarian-development nexus by integrating the prevention and elimination of maternal mortality and morbidity into humanitarian preparedness and response plans, including in the continuum of essential services for sexual and reproductive health and combating gender-based violence in emergencies, with particular attention given to the protection needs of refugee, asylum-seeking, migrant and internally displaced women and girls;

Further calls upon States to address the underlying determinants of health, such as gender and racial discrimination and socioeconomic factors, including poverty and malnutrition, which render certain women and girls, including adolescents, and especially those facing intersectional discrimination, more vulnerable to maternal morbidity, such as obstetric fistula, uterine prolapse, perinatal distress, post-partum depression and infertility;

Calls upon States to respect, protect and fulfil the right to sexual and reproductive health, including for women, girls, women and girls with disabilities, and pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls in criminal justice detention, free from discrimination, coercion and violence, and to address the social and other determinants of health, removing legal barriers, developing and enforcing policies, good practices and legal frameworks that respect dignity, integrity and bodily autonomy and guarantee universal access to sexual and reproductive health services that are available, accessible, including affordable, acceptable and of quality and evidence-based information and education, including for menstrual health and family planning, and ensuring timely access to maternal health services and emergency obstetric care, including treatment for pregnancy-related morbidity, while being respectful of the principle of confidentiality;

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, including affordable, acceptable and quality health services for all, lack of information and education, including evidence-based comprehensive sexuality education, lack of access to medicines, medical equipment and perinatal facilities, all types of malnutrition, poverty, stigma, 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 and gender-based inequalities and discrimination, and to take concrete measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against all women and girls;

Calls upon States to promote human rights-based, age- and gender-responsive and disability-inclusive multisectoral and cross-disciplinary coordination of policies, programmes, budgets and services designed to prevent and treat maternal mortality and morbidity, with the active participation of all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, and especially the full, equal, meaningful and inclusive participation of all women and girls, at the national, local and community levels, and to promote social accountability mechanisms to monitor such 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 systems and the health workforce, to provide the essential services needed to prevent and treat maternal mortality and morbidity, 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, including affordability, acceptability and quality of sexual and reproductive health services for all women and girls, as well as the sexual and reproductive health needs of all women and girls throughout their life cycles, in order to support more comprehensive policies to prevent and address maternal mortality and morbidity;

Further urges States to strengthen maternal death surveillance and response mechanisms within national health systems to identify and correct systemic failures in access to acceptable and quality sexual and reproductive health services, including community and facility-based maternal health services;

Calls upon States to build recognition, at the national and international levels, that preventable maternal mortality and morbidity is a human rights issue, including through more targeted research in this area, the allocation of sufficient resources and dedicated efforts to ensure the availability, in particular for women and girls, of information on the overlapping causes of specific maternal mortalities and morbidities and their prevention;

Takes note with appreciation of the follow-up report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on good practices and challenges in the application of a human rights-based approach to the elimination of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, which was focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sexual and reproductive health, including maternal health, 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 by 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 services and combating discriminatory gender stereotypes, norms and behaviour;

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 and sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, especially those aimed at preventing maternal mortality and morbidity, such as by informing all women and girls of their rights under relevant normative frameworks, improving legal and health infrastructure and removing all barriers to access to legal counselling, assistance and remedies;

Calls upon States to ensure gender equality, women’s rights and children’s rights, and other relevant stakeholders as appropriate to take action, through inclusive public awareness-raising and evidence-based initiatives, including in schools, through the media and online, such as 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 in and out of school settings;

Also calls upon States to convene and support multi-stakeholder meetings and consultations 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;

Notes the importance of the technical guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach to the implementation of policies and programmes for the reduction of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, which provides detailed guidance on the steps required to develop, implement and evaluate policies and programmes on maternal health, following a policy cycle of planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring, review and oversight and remedies;

Requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare an update to the technical guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach to the elimination of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, informed by a global analysis from different regional perspectives of good practices, gaps and challenges and the main developments in the area of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity, and to submit the updated technical guidance, in a comprehensive report, accessible to persons with disabilities, including in accessible and Easy Read formats, to the Human Rights Council at its sixtieth session;

Also requests the Office of the High Commissioner to facilitate the open, transparent and inclusive update of the technical guidance through online consultations with States, relevant entities of the United Nations system, in particular the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders, such as health providers and women’s human rights organizations, including through one expert consultation, to be held in hybrid format in 2025;

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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