A/HRC/29/44 D. Access to medicines for women and children 21. Dr. Schiavon stated that ensuring access to, and consistent procurement of, reproductive and neonatal health commodities was essential to ensuring human rights including the rights to health and life. Although maternal mortality rates had dropped significantly since 1990, 289,000 women had still died from causes relating to maternity in 2013, and there were significant disparities in mortality rates between regions. Worldwide 41 per cent of pregnancies were unwanted, and most of them were due to non-use or underuse of contraceptives. Lower contraceptive use correlated with higher rates of abortion. Reducing unintended pregnancies could avert 60 per cent of maternal deaths and 57 per cent of child deaths. Although access to contraceptives had increased, inequities remained both within and between States. Diverse challenges and barriers prevented equal access to potentially life-saving drugs for women, including ideological opposition to certain medications, such as emergency contraception and misoprostol (oral oxytocic) recommended for a variety of obstetric uses. She advocated evidence-based guidelines and policies to promote access to medicines for sexual and reproductive health. 22. Tarek Meguid, Associate Professor, State University of Zanzibar, asserted that lack of access to medicines constituted a grave human rights violation, particularly in maternal and child health. Quoting Mahmoud Fathalla, he said that women were not dying from a lack of technical capacity. They were dying because they were poor, powerless and pregnant, and the international community had yet to make the decision that their lives were worth saving. He described inadequate facilities which had an air of veterinary medicine about them, and stressed that the lives and dignity of poor women and children must be protected. Women must be given the space to empower themselves so that they can take control of their own lives. Dr. Meguid called for the creation of physical, economic and social spaces for women to give them agency and enable them to be the drivers of change. That required immediate action. 23. Lingli Zhang, Professor and Director of Pharmacy, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, described efforts to improve children’s access to medicines in the BRICS countries (Brazil, China, India, the Russian Federation and South Africa), noting their efforts to reach reduction targets in child mortality. While many affordable and accessible medicines had been developed, effective intervention was often inadequate owing to the lack of paediatric formulations and other factors. Despite positive steps, only 4.1 per cent of medicines in China were reserved for children, according to a survey of medicines used in paediatrics in 15 hospitals. Dr. Zhang suggested that an appeal be launched to raise global awareness of the need for all States to have an essential medicine list for children. She called for States to learn from each other’s good practices, including advances by BRICS countries, like the essential medicine list for children in China, India and South Africa. 24. In the ensuing discussion, the speakers were Dr. Mohamed and representatives of OHCHR, Associazione Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII, Autistic Minority International, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the People’s Health Movement. They discussed governmental duties to ensure access to information on contraceptive services on a nondiscriminatory basis; access to medicines for pregnant women living with food insecurity, and for autistic women and children; and the potential of education in reducing infant mortality. War and migration disproportionately affected women, mothers and children. In such cases, special health policies should be implemented and drugs made available in durable forms that did not require refrigeration. 25. Dr. Meguid stated that poor conditions were the standard for people who lived with inadequate medical facilities. Since they had no agency in relation to their health needs that would enable accountability, they did not complain. Health facilities were understaffed and 8