Maternal Mortality, Human Rights and Accountability

The scale of maternal mortality and morbidity today is staggering. This book focuses on a vital part of a human rights response to maternal mortality, viz. accountability. Accountability encompasses monitoring, review and redress at the local, national and international levels. The book's context includes the UN Human Rights Council maternal mortality and morbidity resolutions, as well as Millennium Development Goal 5. It comes out of a roundtable conference held in Geneva during 2010 that examined maternal mortality, human rights and accountability and provided a forum where maternal health and human rights experts could listen to, and learn from, each other. As well as revised and updated conference papers, this volume includes a rich collection of additional resource material on maternal mortality, human rights and accountability.

Paul Hunt is a Law Professor at Essex University (UK), Adjunct Professor at Waikato University (New Zealand), and human rights advisor to WHO Assistant Director-General Dr.Flavia Bustreo. He served as UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health (2002-2008) and has an Honorary Doctorate from the Nordic School of Public Health. Tony Gray completed his DPhil in Theology and has publishhed in the area of philosophical theology. After working in the production of personal biographies, he now runs his own publishing services company whilst undertaking freelance research in topics as diverse as family history, religion and human rights.

Prelims Foreword, Navanethem Pillay Preface, Clemens Nathan Part 1: 1. Maternal Mortality: An Overview, Francisco Songane 2. Citizen Monitoring to Promote the Right to Health Care and Accountability, Dr. Ariel Frisancho Arroyo 3. The Role of Indicators and Benchmarks in Reducing Maternal Mortality: the Case of the Emergency Obstetric Care Indicators, Samantha Lobis 4. What Are Maternal Death Audits? A Sri Lankan Case Study, Dr. Hiranthi Wijemanne 5. The Role of National and International Courts: Human Rights Litigation as a Strategy to Hold States Accountable for Maternal Deaths, Ximena Andion Ibañez 6. The Role of National Human Rights Institutions in Monitoring Human Rights: A Case Study of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Commissioner Winfred Lichuma 7. A Human Rights Based Approach to Maternal Mortality in the United States, Nan Strauss and Rachel Ward 8. Enhancing International Accountability for Maternal Mortality and Morbidity: The Work of Civil Society at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Sandeep Prasad 9. Postscript: Towards Ending Preventable Maternal Deaths, Dr. Flavia Bustreo 10. Human Rights, Constructive Accountability and Maternal Mortality in the Dominican Republic: A Commentary (2003), L. P. Freedman 11. Accountability and the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (2008), Helen Potts 12. Towards Transformative Accountability: Applying a Rights-based Approach to Fulfil Maternal Health Obligations (2010), Alicia Ely Yamin 13. Human Rights Council Resolution 11/8, Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights (2009) 14. Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights (2010) 15. Concise Technical Guidance on the Application of a Human Rights Based Approach to the Implementation of Policies and Programmes to Reduce Preventable Maternal Morbidity and Mortality (2012), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 16. Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health (2010), United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 17. A Review of Global Accountability Mechanisms for Women's and Children's Health (2011), The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health 18. Working Group on Accountability for Results: Final Paper (2011), Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health 19. Keeping Promises, Measuring Results (2011), Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health 20. Realising Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Kenya: A Myth or Reality? Report of the Public Inquiry into Violations of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Kenya (2012), Kenya National Commission on Human Rights 21. The Role of Litigation in Ensuring Women's Reproductive Rights: An Analysis of the Shanti Devi Judgement in India (2012), Jameen Kaur 22. Human Rights Accountability for Maternal Death and Failure to Provide Safe Legal Abortion: The Significance of Two Ground-Breaking CEDAW Decisions (2012), Eszter Kismödi, Judith Bueno De Mesquita, Ximena Andión Ibañez, Rajat Khosla, Lilian Spúlveda