A/HRC/14/39 have expressed concern over the impact of unsafe abortion-related deaths and disabilities not only on women’s right to life but also their right to health.67 28. The Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health maintains that women are entitled to reproductive health-care services, goods and facilities that are: (a) available in adequate numbers; (b) accessible physically and economically; (c) accessible without discrimination; and (d) of good quality.68 Other key criteria include acceptability and accessibility of information.69 Ensuring availability entails increasing care and improving human resources strategies, including increasing the number and quality of health professionals. Physical access to and the cost of health services often influence whether women are able to seek care. Ensuring women’s access to maternal health and other sexual and reproductive health services may require addressing discriminatory laws, policies, practices and gender inequalities in health care and in society. Laws or policies that restrict women’s access to information on sexual and reproductive health have a direct impact on maternal mortality. Preventing maternal mortality includes scaling up technical interventions and making them affordable, but also ensuring that services are sensitive to the rights, cultures and needs of pregnant women, including those from indigenous peoples and other minority groups. Maternal health-care services must be medically appropriate, as quality of care often influences the outcome of interventions and a woman’s decision to seek care. 29. However, the right to health goes beyond access to health care, and maternal mortality and morbidity are affected by a number of underlying social, economic, cultural and political determinants of health and structural barriers.70 These determinants include nutrition, water and sanitation, information on sexual and reproductive health, economic exclusion and discrimination, non-discrimination and gender equality. 3. Rights to education and information 30. The realization of the right to education is essential to women’s ability to enjoy the full range of human rights. Moreover, a comprehensive understanding of sexual and reproductive health is imperative to ensuring individuals’ ability to protect their health and make informed decisions about sexuality and reproduction. Women’s low rates of literacy and education worldwide correlate strongly to high rates of maternal mortality and adversely to other indices of maternal health, including fertility rate, utilization of prenatal care, met need for contraception and higher age at first birth. Lack of education affects women’s health by limiting their knowledge of nutrition, birth spacing and contraception. Additionally, in some countries, education can be a key determinant of quality of care, with less-educated women facing greater discrimination within health-care facilities. 31. The rights to information and the benefits of scientific progress are firmly rooted in the most fundamental human rights, including the rights to life, health, education and nondiscrimination. Access to information is a necessary part of women’s ability to make informed choices with respect to their sexual and reproductive lives and to access health services needed to ensure healthy pregnancy and delivery. In article 16, paragraph 1 (e), of 67 68 69 70 GE.10-12949 See for example: CEDAW concluding observations: Cameroon (CEDAW/C/CMR/CO/3), para. 40; CESCR concluding observations: Kenya (E/C.12/KEN/CO/1), para. 33; Trinidad and Tobago (E/C.12/1/Add.80), 2002, para. 23; CRC concluding observations: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (CRC/C/15/Add.239), para. 50; Ukraine (CRC/C/15/Add.151), para. 57. A/61/338, para. 17. P. Hunt and J. Bueno de Mesquita, Reducing Maternal Mortality: The Contribution of the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (University of Essex, n.d.), p. 6. A/61/338, para. 18. 13