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"Unless India actually counts all the women who die because of childbirth, it won't be able to prevent those thousands of unnecessary deaths. Accountability might seem like an abstract concept, but for Indian women it's a matter of life and death."

This article explores the critical role of civil society in the UN Human Rights Council's resolution on maternal mortality.

At the invitation of the Indian government, the Special Rapporteur on the right to health visited India in late 2007.

The mission focused on the issue of maternal mortality with a view to understanding, in the context of the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the steps taken by India to reduce this phenomenon, and to make constructive recommendations.

This note provides some preliminary observations arising from the mission.

On June 5 2009, IIMMHR participated in a panel of international and national experts during the 11th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.

This report examines the often neglected topic of maternal morbidity, or women’s illnesses and injuries related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Among the report's recommendations:

• Increase resources to sexual and reproductive health and rights
• Encourage equitable health care
• Make governments accountable

New publication of the IIMMHR! This brief draws on three recent examples of civil society groups engaged with budgets to explore the relevance of civil society budget analysis and advocacy and its potential as a tool to hold governments accountable for their maternal mortality reduction commitments.

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"....The magnitude of maternal mortality reflects more than the state of women's health--it highlights the systematic inequality and discrimination women face daily in many different settings...."

This is the website of Negotiating Rights, an effort to build coalitions towards improving maternal health in Uttar Pradesh, India, by engaging simultaneously with policy actors, programme managers, service providers and women users of maternal health services.

"ICPD cemented the foundation of human rights to achieve, among other things, health. This has permitted the construction of a framework for advocacy, accountability, and programming...[and] it permits an analysis of government action and inaction in terms of conduct and results."

This booklet outlines five reasons why ensuring women’s human rights is essential to eliminating preventable maternal death and injury.

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