A/HRC/33/24
43.
The often entrenched nature of health-care systems in many States makes holistic,
cross-sectoral change difficult. Such change is further complicated where lines of
accountability are sometimes unclear. In those contexts, where actors at the federal, state,
and local levels, as well as private sector actors, all influence laws and policies around
maternal health and are involved in service delivery, better coordination and sharing of
information, as well as more stakeholder involvement, is needed. While many stakeholders
play a role in applying a rights-based approach, the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that
human rights are upheld remains with the central Government, which should ensure a
conducive environment for all duty-bearers to meet their obligations and rights-holders to
claim their rights.
D.
Advocacy and capacity-building
44.
There remains a need to build awareness about maternal mortality and morbidity as
an issue of fundamental human rights, not primarily as a biomedical problem. Contributions
from certain stakeholders and discussions surrounding the implementation of the technical
guidance reveal continuing resistance to recognizing that reducing preventable maternal
mortality is a pressing human rights concern, just as important as traditional civil and
political rights protections. More efforts are required to enhance understanding of the
indivisibility of human rights.
45.
There is also a need for further efforts to build capacity on the practical application
of rights-based approach in different contexts and by different actors. The processes in
which the technical guidance has been utilized have consistently pointed to the need for
first building common understanding of what it means to apply a rights-based approach,
which is fundamental for building partnerships for realizing rights.
V. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
46.
The 2030 Agenda, read together with the Secretary-General’s renewed Global
Strategy, presents a solid foundation for the realization of human rights, especially sexual
and reproductive health and rights. Building on that foundation will require careful
attention to be given to translation of those global agendas to national implementation
efforts.
47.
The Sustainable Development Goals have been heralded as a transformative agenda
and human rights-based approaches are a path towards that transformation – from charity to
empowerment, from needs to rights. The process of identifying rights-holders and their
entitlements and duty-bearers and their obligations requires inclusive deliberative processes
at the local, national and international levels that interrogate who is denied or unable to
claim their rights and why, who has power and why and how priorities are set and for
whose benefit. That shift demands critical questioning of complex power structures that
entrench discrimination and inequality, followed by efforts to dismantle those systems and
build more just and equal societies.
48.
As countries launch into the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals,
the technical guidance is an invaluable instrument to guide efforts with a view to ensuring
compliance with human rights obligations and delivering on the promise of a
transformative agenda.
11
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents