Petition to the African Union on
Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity in
Africa
Dear Head of Government:
We welcome
the African Union’s (AU) decision to focus on maternal health in Africa during
the upcoming Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union Heads of
State and Government (AU Assembly), to be held in Kampala from 25 to 27 July
2010.
Through its global “Demand Dignity” campaign for the rights
of people living in poverty, Amnesty International focuses on the human rights
violations that underlie the persistence of maternal mortality and morbidity.
The vast majority of women who die from complications of pregnancy and
childbirth experience are the poorest and most marginalised. They die because
they cannot access adequate healthcare or make decisions about whether and
when to become pregnant. In most cases, maternal deaths could be prevented.
Amnesty International has carried out research on the human
rights violations leading to maternal mortality and morbidity in Sierra Leone
and Burkina Faso. In the two reports it has published, Amnesty underscored the
barriers women face when accessing maternal healthcare – barriers which
constitute violations of women’s human rights – and pointed out the lack of
accountability for and monitoring of these human rights
violations.
Despite several
policies and initiatives adopted by the African Union to tackle this issue,
there are gaps which continue to exist in the realisation of the commitments
made by African States, and in light of the upcoming Summit, we urge you
to give the elimination of preventable maternal death and ill-health the
attention it deserves, notably by addressing the following points we believe
to be crucial:
·
The need to
combat discrimination and end harmful traditional practices that aggravate
women’s risk of maternal mortality and
morbidity
·
The need to
improve access to sexual and reproductive health and rights for all African
women
·
The need to
address financial barriers to maternal healthcare for the
poorest
·
The need to
improve quality of maternal care to avoid preventable
deaths
·
The
need to reinforce accountability and monitoring to give people redress in case
of violations
We believe the African Union can make a difference in
respecting African women’s right to health and in reducing maternal mortality
and morbidity in Africa. We count on
you!