June 26, 2014
In many countries, laws, regulations and policies are not always consistent with human rights standards and may represent a barrier for people achieving the highest attainable standard of health. A new WHO toolbox on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) enables countries to use a human rights framework to identify those barriers and make proposals to overcome or reduce them.
In addition, using the tool will help countries to:
- recognize national human rights obligations related to RMNCH;
- review and document efforts by governments to establish legal and policy frameworks that support RMNCH;
- identify the most vulnerable groups and existing government efforts to address their needs;
- engage actors from the health sector and non-health sectors to help eliminate legal, policy and regulatory barriers to RMNCH.
Download Reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and human rights: A toolbox for examining laws, regulations and policies, WHO, 2014 (PDF)