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- Title
USING INTERNATIONAL LAW TO PROMOTE MILLENNIUM HEALTH TARGETS: A ROLE FOR THE CEDAW OPTIONAL PROTOCOL IN REDUCING MATERNAL MORTALITY.
- Authors
Hall, Margaux J.
- Abstract
Over 500,000 women continue to die each year from pregnancy- and delivery-related causes, often in high-risk pregnancies. Globally, maternal mortality has decreased by 1 percent a year since the 1990s; in Sub-Saharan Africa, it has decreased by only 0.1 percent a year. As these statistics reveal, many nations are far off-track to attain the internationally-established Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality 75 percent by 2015. To meet the goal, the global community must address the role of restrictive abortion laws and policies in maternal deaths. This article argues that there is creative space to do so through using international law, and in particular by launching an individual petition under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Optional Protocol for a safe abortion. The article demonstrates that CEDAW's General Comments and concluding observations provide an implicit right to safe abortions, at least in certain contexts. Further, the Optional Protocol provides powerful procedural mechanisms that bolster a petition for a safe abortion. Namely, it provides liberal exceptions to the 'exhaustion of domestic remedies' requirement that allow for international adjudication, and 'interim measures of protection' that could include mandating a life-saving abortion while a case is being reviewed. Key doctrinal developments over the past decade, coupled with the emerging quasi-judicial function of treaty bodies via Optional Protocols, have made international forums a vital space in which to articulate and affirm the right to safe abortion care, without which women will continue to suffer unnecessary death and injury.
- Subjects
INTERNATIONAL law; HEALTH promotion; MATERNAL mortality; PREGNANCY; ABORTION laws; CONVENTION on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1980)
- Publication
Wisconsin International Law Journal, 2010, Vol 28, Issue 1, p74
- ISSN
0743-7951
- Publication type
Article