Human Rights Accountability for Maternal Death and Failure to Provide Safe, Legal Abortion: The Significance of Two Ground-Breaking CEDAW Decisions

Posted: 27 Sep 2012

See all articles by Kismodi Eszter Kismödi

Kismodi Eszter Kismödi

World Health Organization (WHO) - Department of Reproductive Health and Research

Judith Bueno de Mesquita

University of Essex - School of Law

Ximena Ibanez

Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida, Mexico

Rajat Khosla

World Health Organization

Lilian Sepulveda

Center for Reprofuctive Rights, New York, USA

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

In 2011, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) issued two landmark decisions. In Alyne da Silva Pimentel v. Brazil, the first maternal death case decided by an international human rights body, it confirms that States have a human rights obligation to guarantee that all women, irrespective of their income or racial background, have access to timely, non-discriminatory, and appropriate maternal health services. In L.C. v. Peru, concerning a 13-year-old rape victim who was denied a therapeutic abortion and had an operation on her spine delayed that left her seriously disabled as a result, it established that the State should guarantee access to abortion when a woman’s physical or mental health is in danger, decriminalise abortion when pregnancy results from rape or sexual abuse, review its restrictive interpretation of therapeutic abortion and establish a mechanism to ensure that Reproductive rights are understood and observed in all health care facilities. Both cases affirm that accessible and good quality health services are vital to women’s human rights and expand States’ obligations in relation to these. They also affirm that States must ensure national accountability for sexual and reproductive health rights, and provide remedies and redress in the event of violations. And they reaffirm the importance of international human rights bodies as sources of accountability for sexual and reproductive rights violations, especially where national accountability is absent or ineffective.

Keywords: human rights, maternal mortality, safe abortion, accountability, remedies and redress

Suggested Citation

Kismödi, Kismodi Eszter and Bueno de Mesquita, Judith and Ibanez, Ximena and Khosla, Rajat and Sepulveda, Lilian, Human Rights Accountability for Maternal Death and Failure to Provide Safe, Legal Abortion: The Significance of Two Ground-Breaking CEDAW Decisions (2012). Reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 20, No. 39, May, 2012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2131120

Kismodi Eszter Kismödi (Contact Author)

World Health Organization (WHO) - Department of Reproductive Health and Research ( email )

Switzerland

Judith Bueno de Mesquita

University of Essex - School of Law ( email )

Colchester, Essex CO43SQ
United Kingdom

Ximena Ibanez

Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida, Mexico ( email )

Callejon de Corregidora 6
Tlacopa, DF, 01040
Mexico

Rajat Khosla

World Health Organization ( email )

20 Avenue Appia
Geneva 27, CH-1211
Switzerland

Lilian Sepulveda

Center for Reprofuctive Rights, New York, USA ( email )

120 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
United States

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