Shadow letter on excess maternal mortality to Human Rights Committee

A letter was submitted on 9/27/05 to The Human Rights Committee (the official treaty monitoring body established in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 28) by The Center for Reproductive Rights “to supplement the periodic reports of the government of Brazil to the Human Rights Committee,” which Brazil is required to submit per ICCPR Art. 40. Methods: For this letter, I researched the maternal mortality rate (MMR) for Brazil and three other nations with similar or lower GDP per capita, for comparative purposes, and contributed to a section of the shadow letter incorporating MMR and GDP per capita statistics in order to provide authority for the argument that “the health of mothers in Brazil is not as good as it should be given the country's income levels,” and that Brazil's failure to take remedial measures to lower the MMR was a violation of several human rights including the rights to life (ICCPR Art. 6), to equal enjoyment of civil and political rights by men and women (ICCPR Art. 3), and to equal protection (ICCPR Art. 26). Results: In its subsequent report of 12/05, The Human Rights Committee concluded that in its next report Brazil, “should provide detailed information regarding the effectiveness of ... measures taken to protect and promote human rights,” in reference to ICCPR Arts. 3, 26, and others.