A/HRC/27/20
entitlements, and thus do not demand their rights. Rights are more likely to be respected,
protected and fulfilled where there is a culture of accountability, which depends greatly on
civic engagement and awareness of rights. More work is required in order to ensure that all
people are knowledgeable about their human rights and how to claim them.
V.
Recommendations
68.
The High Commissioner observes that further time is needed in order to assess
the impact of the utilization of the technical guidance and to understand how efforts to
apply rights-based approaches to maternal health can be more robustly supported. In
this regard, the High Commissioner recommends that the Council remain seized of
this important issue and continue to receive information on the implementation of the
technical guidance, in order to advance understanding about the operationalization of
human rights.
69.
The following recommendations are offered to States and other stakeholders, as
relevant:
(a)
Disseminate the technical guidance widely, including by ensuring its
distribution to relevant ministries and other organizations working in the area of
sexual and reproductive health and rights. In addition, stakeholders should explore
additional modalities for making the technical guidance available in more accessible
formats.
(b)
Organize briefing sessions, webinars, or other meetings, to discuss how
the technical guidance can be used at the national level and to enhance understanding
of rights-based approaches.
(c)
Identify opportunities for implementing the technical guidance, and
support its implementation, in national-level processes, including law reform, sector
policy reviews, UNDAFs, monitoring and evaluation processes, and accountability
processes.
(d)
Convene and support multi-stakeholder groups to discuss the application
of a rights-based approach to maternal health and sexual and reproductive health
more broadly, and prioritize areas for action.
(e)
Ensure coordination of multi-sectoral and cross-disciplinary processes in
order to achieve a comprehensive approach to sexual and reproductive health and
rights, including maternal health, as required by a human rights-based approach.
(f)
Engage in capacity-building for different stakeholders (including
policymakers, legislators, national human rights institutions, United Nations agencies,
and service providers, among others) in order to support efforts to apply rights-based
approaches to sexual and reproductive health.
(g)
Support efforts to convey the technical guidance in formats that are
more accessible to a wide variety of stakeholder groups.
(h)
Engage in capacity-building for rights holders to enable them to claim
their rights and contribute to a culture of accountability for delivering on sexual and
reproductive health and rights.
(i)
Where programmes and other initiatives already apply a rights-based
approach to maternal health, consider using the technical guidance as an assessment
tool to evaluate the comprehensiveness of such approaches.
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