Creating a fairer Britain
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) has upheld a complaint brought against Brazil on behalf of a woman who died following a stillbirth because she didn’t receive adequate medical attention. This is the first ever maternal death case to be decided by an international human rights body, and a moving example of how the CEDAW Optional Protocol can be used to hold governments accountable for women’s human rights.
The ruling establishes that governments must provide pregnant women with adequate and appropriate maternal health services.
The complaint was brought on behalf of a Brazilian woman of African descent, Alyne da Silva Pimentael Teixeira, who suffered a stillbirth in her sixth month of pregnancy and subsequently died as a result of negligent medical care in a private hospital. Her family’s claim for compensation had been stalled in the domestic courts for 8 years. The CEDAW Committee agreed that this was an unreasonably prolonged delay and therefore domestic remedies had been exhausted.
The complaint argued that Ms Teixeira’s right to life was violated by the State’s failure to secure her safety during pregnancy and childbirth, and that the denial or neglect of health-care interventions that only women need, including in relation to reproductive health, is a form of discrimination against women.
The Committee agreed. Its decision affirms that the CEDAW Convention commits governments to ensuring safe motherhood and emergency obstetric services for women. The Committee rejected the Brazilian government’s argument that it was not responsible for the failures of a private health-care institution.
After considering all the evidence regarding Ms Teixera’s treatment, the Committee concluded that she had been discriminated against not only on the basis of her sex but also because she was a woman of African descent and from a poor socio-economic background.
The Committee made a number of recommendations, including the payment of compensation to the victim’s family, and measures to ensure women’s access to adequate affordable obstetric care.
While aspects of the case are specific to Brazil and failings in its healthcare system, there are implications for the UK where rates of miscarriage, stillbirth and maternal mortality are unacceptably high in Traveller communities in particular. In its last Concluding Observations on the UK, the CEDAW Committee urged the UK government to “take concrete measures to address the high maternal mortality rate in Traveller communities ...”.
Our Triennial Review also noted that the high mortality rate of Black African women who are asylum seekers is partly due to their problems in accessing maternal healthcare.