A/HRC/33/24 A. Sexual and reproductive health and rights 49. The technical guidance is grounded in recognition of sexual and reproductive health and rights, including the right to survive pregnancy and childbirth in good health. Recognizing that includes recognizing whether women live or die in childbirth is integrally related to the status of women and girls in society; their ability to make informed decisions about if, when and whether to engage in sexual intercourse, to marry or to have children; their access to quality health services and information, including comprehensive sexuality education; and their access to resources to be able to realize their human rights. 50. This broad understanding of sexual and reproductive health and rights is supported in the political agreements of the 1990s, such as the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action, but was restricted in the Millennium Development Goals to maternal health only. The 2030 Agenda represents an important improvement in recognizing a more holistic approach to women’s human rights, including rights related to sexual and reproductive health, which must be retained in its implementation. B. International human rights standards 51. Applying a rights-based approach in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity, and realize women’s human rights more broadly, requires attention to be paid to the international human rights standards that bind all States. While the Sustainable Development Goals, and their predecessors the Millennium Development Goals, offer important targets for collective action, the ultimate goal must be full realization of human rights. The declaration of the 2030 Agenda is explicit in this requirement, emphasizing that the Agenda is to be implemented in a manner that is consistent with the rights and obligations of States under international law. 52. One critical action is ensuring common understanding of the content of international human rights standards and corresponding State obligations. With respect to sexual and reproductive health and rights, because those rights span many areas, the standards are located in numerous treaties, as explained in the first report of the High Commissioner to this Council on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity (A/HRC/14/39). As mentioned above, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted general comment No. 22 (2016) on the right to sexual and reproductive health. That authoritative interpretation of article 12 of the Covenant, which should be read together with the work of other human rights mechanisms, specifies States’ obligations in the domain, and should serve as a reference point for States as they implement the Sustainable Development Goals. In the general comment, the Committee specifies that the right to sexual and reproductive health entails a set of freedoms and entitlements. The freedoms include the right to make free and responsible decisions and choices, free of violence, coercion and discrimination, regarding matters concerning one’s body and sexual and reproductive health. The entitlements include unhindered access to a whole range of health facilities, goods, services and information, which ensure all people full enjoyment of the right to sexual and reproductive health. 53. These human rights standards are relevant across contexts. Importantly, the Sustainable Development Goals departed from the approach under the Millennium Development Goals of only focusing on progress made by developing countries and articulated a universal agenda for all countries, which is a crucial opportunity to examine inequalities among various groups within countries, in accordance with the technical guidance. 12