A/70/213 high-income countries. 9 There are also significant disparities in under-5 mortality and morbidity within countries, driven by poverty, gender a nd other inequalities. Low levels of literacy and poor access to education among women correlate strongly with high rates of under-5 mortality. B. Progress in reducing under-5 mortality and morbidity 10. The reduction of under-5 mortality has been at the heart of the global development and public health agendas. The Millennium Development Goals called for a reduction of under-5 mortality by two thirds between 1990 and 2015 (goal 4). Global commitments such as the Millennium Development Goads have pr ovided impetus for global strategies as well as national plans to accelerate progress, most notably the Secretary-General’s 2010 Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health 10 and Every Newborn: An Action Plan to End Preventable Deaths, issued by WHO in 2014. These documents have helped galvanize international and national action as well provided technical guidance for reducing under -5 mortality and morbidity. 11. Significant progress has been made in reducing deaths among children under five, from 12.7 million deaths in 1990 to 6.3 million deaths in 2013. However, progress has been insufficient to meet goal 4, particularly in Oceania, sub -Saharan Africa, the Caucasus and Central Asia and Southern Asia. 11 12. In September 2015, the General Assembly is to adopt a set of sustainable development goals that will replace the Millennium Development Goals as the focus of the international development agenda. At the same time, a new global strategy for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health is to be launched. The ending of preventable deaths of newborns and children under five is a target of the “zero draft” of the sustainable development goals. 12 13. Nevertheless, the Special Rapporteur in concerned at what he sees as the “the unfinished business” of goal 4, especially the slow progress in reducing preventable newborn deaths and the alarming prevailing rates of stillbirths. C. Human rights-based approach to addressing under-5 mortality and morbidity 14. Reducing under-5 mortality and morbidity is a critical right to health issue. The Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that taking appropriate measures to diminish infant and child mortality is a central aspect of States parties ’ obligations in relation to the right of the child to health. 13 The right to health is therefore closely linked to the right to survive of young children. __________________ 9 10 11 12 13 15-12535 UNICEF and others, p. 1. The Global Strategy is to be updated in Septemb er 2015. UNICEF and others, p. 1. Available from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/7261Post -2015% 20Summit%20-%202%20June%202015.pdf. Article 24.1 and 24.2 (a). 5/25