A/HRC/RES/15/17
Welcoming also the outcome document of the High-level Plenary Meeting of the
sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, held in
New York from 20 to 22 September 2010, entitled “Keeping the promise: united to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals”, and reaffirming in particular the deep concern
expressed therein by the Assembly at the alarming global levels of maternal and child
mortality and its grave concern at the slow progress being made on reducing maternal
mortality and improving maternal and reproductive health, as well as the commitments to
accelerate progress in order to achieve Millennium Development Goal 5 on improving
maternal health, and Millennium Development Goal 8 on a global partnership for
development,
Welcoming further the information contained in the recent report entitled “Trends in
maternal mortality”, released jointly by the World Health Organization, the United Nations
Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund and the World Bank, showing a
decrease in the number of women and girls dying annually owing to complications during
pregnancy and childbirth, but expressing continued grave concern at the still unacceptably
high global rate of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity,
Convinced that increased political will and commitment, cooperation and technical
assistance at the international and national levels are urgently required to reduce the
unacceptably high global rate of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity,
Welcoming the holding of the interactive panel debate on preventable maternal
mortality and morbidity and human rights, on 14 June 2010 at its fourteenth session,
Recognizing that gender equality, the empowerment of women, women’s full
enjoyment of all human rights and the eradication of poverty are essential to economic and
social development, and that achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women is
both a key development goal and an important means for achieving all of the Millennium
Development Goals,
1.
Welcomes the thematic study on preventable maternal mortality and
morbidity and human rights prepared by the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights,1 and calls upon all stakeholders to consider the findings
and recommendations contained therein;
2.
Reaffirms its commitment to strengthen national statistical systems, including
for effectively monitoring progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, and
reiterates the need to increase efforts in support of statistical capacity-building in
developing countries;
3.
Calls upon States to collect disaggregated data, including data disaggregated
by age, rural/urban location, disability and other relevant criteria, in relation to maternal
mortality and morbidity to ensure effective targeting of policies and programmes to address
discrimination and the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized women and adolescent
girls, and to permit effective monitoring of policies and programmes, including through the
adoption of national-level targets and indicators reflecting the main underlying causes of
maternal mortality and morbidity, and through the development of appropriate health
programmes;
1
2
A/HRC/14/39.