An important right

Her Majesty Queen Rania left a distinctive mark at the conference on maternal health, held recently in Toronto under the title “Saving every woman, every child”.

The Queen, UNICEF’s first Eminent Advocate for Children, attended the three-day event that offers “a significant opportunity to embed the goals and targets related to MNCH [maternal, newborn and child health] into the post-2015 global development framework”.

While the fact that maternal mortality dropped by 45 per cent worldwide and under-five mortality rate decreased by almost half is praiseworthy, figures still offer a reason to worry, said Her Majesty.

Every minute-and-a-half a woman dies from pregnancy complications or childbirth, every day 18,000 children under five die from preventable causes and every year 2.9 million newborns die and 2.6 million are stillborn.

Such staggering figures should indeed give food for thought to governments worldwide.

Unimpeded access to medical services could help prevent two thirds of newborn deaths, so the soon-to-be-launched “Every newborn action plan”, which will focus attention on newborn health, improving chances of survival, health and development, is a welcome initiative that will work to advance the goals of the UN secretary general’s global strategy for women’s and children’s health.

Absent from the debate at the conference was the issue of safe abortion, on which the world is still divided.

There are religious and moral divides on this issue that need to be dealt with by the world at large.

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is now in the process of articulating a “General comment” on the right to sexual and reproductive health, which is expected to address the controversial issue of safe abortion, maternal health in rural areas of developing countries and combating discrimination in order to make the right to healthcare accessible and affordable to all.

Maternal and infant health have several dimensions that cannot be tackled unless all actors, within the UN and outside, bring their contribution.

The Toronto conference is the beginning of a long process that should see the issue dealt with in all its aspects.