Press Release: Centre for Reproductive Rights
Last year, the Center for Reproductive Rights won a groundbreaking
victory in our eight-year battle on behalf of Alyne da Silva Pimentel,
an
impoverished Afro-brazilian woman who died when doctors
willfully failed to provide her with the maternal healthcare to which
she was legally entitled.
In February 2012, the Center presented a shadow letter on the case at the 51st
Session of the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in Geneva. The letter to
the CEDAW Committee, which issued the ruling in August 2011, highlights
the Committee’s
decision in Alyne da Silva Pimentel v. Brazil finding
the State responsible under the CEDAW for violating its obligations
under international
law because of failures to guarantee Alyne maternal healthcare
services of quality and without discrimination. The letter goes on to
emphasize the
Brazilian government’s obligation to take immediate action to
implement the Committee’s recommendations in order to improve the
quality of maternal
healthcare, eliminate discrimination in healthcare, and
consequently reduce the country’s maternal mortality rate.
During the Session, the Brazilian government reaffirmed its
commitment to fully comply with the CEDAW Committee’s recommendations on
the case and
indicated its intent to provide reparations to Alyne’s family. The
Center applauds the government’s promise to implement measures that
will
improve the quality of maternal healthcare and emergency medical
treatment, and to prevent negligence and systematic discrimination by
health care
professionals, both of which contributed to Alyne’s death.
In the CEDAW Committee’s Concluding Observations to the Brazilian
government, the Committee expressed concern that Brazil’s current
measures for
reducing maternal mortality “might not sufficiently address all
causes of maternal mortality as it merely focuses on care services for
pregnant women.”
The Committee also expressed concern about the criminal
sanctions faced by women who undergo illegal abortions, as well as
several bills under
consideration that will jeopardize women’s reproductive health
and rights. One such bill is the Estatuto do Nascituro, which
attempts to
institute fetal rights. The Committee also specifically
requested that Brazil submit a report on its implementation of the
Committee’s Concluding
Observations concerning the right to health within the next two
years.
The Center greatly appreciates the CEDAW Committee’s inquiries during
the Session on the protection of the rights to privacy and
confidentiality in
Brazil’s recently enacted legislation on maternal health,
Provision Measure 557, and its emphasis on the provision of individual
reparations in the
case of Alyne da Silva Pimentel v. Brazil. The Center
further appreciates the CEDAW Committee’s demonstrated commitment to
advancing the right
to health for all women. We hope Brazil keeps up its promise and
complies not only with the recommendations on the case but also with
the new
concluding observations.
Read Soroptimist International’s report on the story here.