Maternal Mortality and Human Rights

This presentation discusses current efforts to develop and enforce a human rights norm with regards to preventable maternal death. The author begins by presenting statistical data regarding pregnancy-related deaths, which shows that rates vary starkly with the wealth of the country. Wealthy countries are no longer as vulnerable to pregnancy-related deaths as poor countries, which indicates that dying during pregnancy is preventable. The author argues that the continuation of high maternal death rates is due to a failure of government will. The author calls for the creation and implementation of standards to enforce government accountability in this matter. The presentation concludes with a discussion of some such standards that have already been enforced in different parts of the world.