A/61/338 C. The need for a human rights campaign against maternal mortality 31. In his work, the Special Rapporteur has urged human rights experts and organizations to move beyond their traditional techniques — such as campaigning, naming and shaming, and court-based approaches — to engage with health decisionmakers to ensure that the right to health informs policies. 32. Maternal mortality is one of a small number of right-to-health issues where human rights experts and health policymakers have engaged extensively and constructively with each other. These efforts deserve applause and further support; however, there is certainly scope for further interactions at the international, national and local levels. 33. In contrast, the human rights community has given less attention to the traditional human rights techniques for addressing maternal mortality.29 Naming and shaming, campaigning, and court-based approaches also have an important role to play in strengthening claims, and enhancing accountability for, the reduction of maternal mortality. 34. In the 1990s, domestic violence was identified as a violation of human rights and this helped the global campaign against domestic violence gather momentum. By the same token, the human rights community should be challenged to mount a global human rights campaign against maternal mortality. The human rights community must be urged to remonstrate and demonstrate about maternal mortality just as loudly as it complains about extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention, unfair trials and prisoners of conscience. Persistently high maternal mortality rates, coupled with the fact that all States are committed to reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio by 2015, suggests that the time is ripe for such an initiative. 35. This is not to underestimate the many challenges that would confront such an undertaking. For example, while violence against women is always a human rights violation, some unavoidable cases of maternal mortality are not. To take another example, the identity of the human rights violator may not always be clear because responsibility for maternal mortality may be attributable to multiple actors, including family members, health professionals and facilities, the relevant State, and the international community. However, that does not stop many maternal deaths from being a human rights violation — and this violation must be investigated precisely to determine where responsibility lies, and so as to better ensure accountability, so that the appropriate policy changes are introduced as a matter of urgency. 36. A human rights campaign against avoidable maternal mortality would inevitably lead to other crucial issues, not least the vital importance of constructing effective health systems that are accessible to all. III. The human right to medicines 37. Almost 2 billion people lack access to essential medicines.30 This deprivation causes immense and avoidable suffering: ill health, pain, fear, loss of dignity and life.31 Improving access to existing medicines could save 10 million lives each year, 4 million of them in Africa and South-East Asia.32 Besides deprivation, gross 10 06-51997