Human Rights and Maternal Health: Exploring the Effectiveness of the Alyne Decision

This article summarizes a decision given by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which was created to monitor CEDAW compliance by its member states. In the case, Alyne da Silva Pimentel Teixeira v. Brazil, the Committee held that the Brazilian government was accountable for a preventable maternal death, in breach of CEDAW. The article goes on to analyze the effects of the Alyne decision, which was groundbreaking in legitimizing the need for countries to implement and effectively monitor policies to prevent maternal mortality. The Committee's recommendations in the decision included the need to compensate Alyne's family, use health service indicators to measure progress, and highlighted the need to address health disparities between subgroups of pregnant women.