Many governments are already on board. In March, 85 countries called upon the council to take decisive action to contribute to the existing efforts to address maternal mortality. In this critical year leading up to the Millennium Development Goal review in 2010, the council has a historic opportunity in its June session to recognize the need to incorporate human rights into programs and policies designed to combat maternal deaths and encourage international cooperation and assistance in this area.
More than one woman dies every minute from preventable causes in childbirth, and for every woman who dies as many as 30 others are left with lifelong, debilitating complications. Moreover, when mothers die, children are at greater risk of dropping out of school, becoming malnourished, and simply not surviving. Not only is maternal mortality and morbidity a global health emergency, but it triggers and aggravates cycles of poverty that cause generations of suffering and despair.
But it is not just a hopeless tragedy. We know what is needed to save women's lives; we have known for 60 years what care women need when they face obstetric complications. The reason that women are still dying is because women's lives are not valued, because their voices are not listened to, and because they are discriminated against and excluded in their communities and by healthcare systems that fail to prioritize their needs. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, which has just launched a global campaign to reduce maternal mortality, are calling on governments to acknowledge that these utterly preventable deaths reflect widespread indifference to women's suffering and pervasive disregard for their fundamental human rights.
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