A/HRC/14/20/Add.2 88. There are some existing accountability mechanisms in relation to the private health sector. Under the Consumer Protection Act (1986), for example, courts may receive claims of medical negligence and award compensation to aggrieved individuals and families. However, existing mechanisms are not remotely adequate. 89. The lack of significant progress towards establishing an appropriate, effective regulatory framework for the private health sector places the Government of India in breach of its right to health responsibilities. 5. Conclusion: the critical role of an independent body 90. In India, monitoring, accountability and redress in relation to the public and private health sectors is egregiously underdeveloped. One approach to this enormous problem is for the authorities to establish transparent, effective, accessible, autonomous health commissions at the federal and state levels, reporting to their legislatures, to regulate and monitor the private and public health sectors, to ensure that they deliver quality health services for all, including in relation to maternal health. In the meantime, however, urgent steps must be taken to enhance monitoring, accountability and redress in relation to maternal mortality. A few specific, practical, illustrative measures have been identified in these paragraphs. 91. The Special Rapporteur strongly recommends that the Government of India urgently establish an independent body to accelerate progress towards the reduction of maternal mortality and the achievement of this vital component of Millennium Development Goal 5. The authorities must decide the best institutional form for this important independent body. It could report directly to Parliament, the Prime Minister’s Office, or both. It could be along the lines of a maternal mortality ombudsman, either part of an existing body, such as the National Human Rights Commission, or a new, self-standing institution. In either case, the body must be properly resourced, transparent, accessible, effective and independent, with appropriate powers. The independent body should not be responsible for the practical delivery of policies and programmes but for galvanizing action and, above all, for ensuring that those in authority properly discharge their responsibilities to reduce maternal mortality. Its duties should include those signalled in the preceding discussion on maternal death reviews and EmOC indicators. 92. Enhancing monitoring, accountability and redress for maternal mortality in the public and private sectors, including public-private partnerships, demands the sustained attention of national, state and local government, international organizations, professional associations, national and state human rights and women’s institutions, civil society and community-based organizations, the courts and the media. The maternal mortality ombudsman — or other independent body designated by the Government of India — has a decisive role to play in this critically important process. V. Conclusion 93. For a middle-income country of its stature and level of development, the rate of maternal deaths in India is shocking, raising multiple human rights issues. 94. In India, some 300 maternal deaths occur for every 100,000 live births, compared to 45 in China, 56 in Sri Lanka, 16 in Chile, 45 in Cuba, 110 in Brazil, 130 in Egypt and 210 in Namibia.55 A total of 20 per cent of the world’s maternal deaths occur in India. More women — about 100,000 yearly — die in India during childbirth 55 20 WHO and others, Maternal Mortality in 2005 (Geneva, 2007), pp. 23–26. GE.10-12866