Annals of Health Law - Vol 23 Issue 1

MDG 5, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND MATERNAL HEALTH IN AFRICA care for mothers” and “to develop preventive health care, guidance for parents and family planning education and services.” 21 For countries in Africa, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child imposes similar obligations. 22

The significance of these treaties stems from their potential transformative impact on the health and wellbeing of mothers throughout Africa, a theme pursued in considerable detail in the fifth section of this work. 23 In contrast to reliance on non-binding frameworks, these treaties transform claims relating to maternal health to human rights enforceable against the government. In other words, the citizenry is empowered to demand quality care and related goods and services as a right enforceable against the State, thereby transforming what was once conceptualized as a “technical concern” to a “moral and political [as well as a legal] imperative.” 24 By injecting “an international and moral dimension” to the plight of women, these treaties contribute to wrestling maternal health concerns out of the exclusively parochial grip of sovereign national authorities and placing it firmly and squarely on the international agenda. 25 The importance of this transformative impact rests on the fact that for populations languishing under the agonizing pangs of irresponsible governance, international legal and policy frameworks, and the oversight that comes along with them may be the only useful alternative means of attending to their needs. Nonetheless, the fact that even with the widespread signing and ratification of these treaties, key health statistics relating to the health of mothers and other dimensions of wellbeing in Africa continue to plunge stridently testifies to the vacuousness of socioeconomic rights in resource deficit settings. 26 But, then, the agreement on substantial assistance from affluent nations to poorer ones, in the nature of increased official development assistance (ODA), explicit in MDG 8, might crystallize to a productive weapon in terms of supplying the “missing link” (resources) in country efforts to halt deteriorating state of mothers’ health and wellbeing within their respective territories. 27 U.N. Secretary- chapter= 4&lang=en. The CRC has been ratified by 193 countries. Id. Only the United States and Somalia are yet to ratify the CRC though both countries signed the treaty. Id.

21. African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/24.9/49 (1990) Art. 14 (entered into force Nov. 29, 1999) [hereinafter ACRWC].