Ugandan civil organizations ask Supreme Court to declare death during childbirth violates women's rights

In an effort to lower the maternal mortality rate in Uganda, activists from more than 50 civil service organizations on Tuesday asked the country's Supreme Court "to declare that women's rights are violated when they die in childbirth," which could help make the government put more resources toward maternal health care and lower the rate of maternal deaths, currently about 100 per week, the Associated Press/Fox News reports. "All we want is a declaration that when women die during childbirth it is a violation of their rights," Noor Musisi of the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development in Kampala said, according to the news agency.

Uganda's Constitutional Court last week declined to make such a statement and "said the matter was for the country's political leaders to handle," the AP notes. In February, while visiting Uganda, Lois Quam, head of the U.S. Global Health Initiative, "said she had asked Ugandan officials to take 'greater ownership' of maternal health care and avoid sinking deeper into dependency on foreign benefactors," according to the news agency (6/13).