IPPF recognizes and believes that all persons* have a right to life and that no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of their life1. IPPF further recognizes that genocide is a crime under international law2, and that this applies where measures including family planning are imposed which are intended to prevent births within a national, ethnic, racial, religious or cultural group with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, that group, and, therefore, commits itself to the following:

1.1 No woman’s life should be put at risk or endangered by reason of pregnancy. This right refers in particular to avoidable deaths – especially to the need to reduce the risk factors for high-risk pregnancies, such as those which are “too early, too late, too close or too many”.

1.2 No child’s life should be put at risk or endangered, particularly not by reason of her/his gender.

1.3 No person’s life should be put at risk or endangered by reason of lack of access to health care services and/or information, counselling or services related to sexual or reproductive health.†

AND further commits itself to taking all steps to ensure the attainment of the following right:

1.4 The right of all girl infants to be free from the risk of female infanticide.

* Persons are recognized in international law, as human beings having been born; see Article 1 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.
† Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Paragraph 7.2: definition of reproductive health, which is reproduced on page 52 in the Standards section of The Right to Health Care and Health Protection.

Notes
1 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948, Art. 2: “... genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group, as such: ... (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group...”
2 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966, Art. 9.1 : “Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedures as are established by law.” Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, Art. 3: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict, 1974, Paragraph 4: “…All the necessary steps shall be taken to ensure the prohibition of measures such as persecution, torture, punitive measures, degrading treatment and violence, particularly against that part of the civilian population that consists of women and children.”

The right can be used to address issues relating to:

• Maternal mortality: women dying due to having too many children, too close together, at too early an age or too late an age
• Safe motherhood: the right to experience pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood free from pain and illness with no long-term damage to the woman’s health
• Access to skilled health professionals who can assist with childbirth and deal with possible complications
• Female feticide/infanticide: the killing of female children, occurring in countries where there is, for whatever reason, a marked son preference
• Genocide: measures including family planning are imposed which are intended to prevent births within a national, ethnic, racial, religious or cultural group with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, that group
• Violence, including gender-based violence

Facts & figures

• As many as 300 million women – more than a quarter of all adult women living in the developing world – currently suffer from short- or long-term illnesses and injuries related to pregnancy and childbirth.1
• More than 500,000 women die each year as a result of pregnancy and childbirth.2
• The risk of maternal death among pregnant women aged 15-19 is four times higher than among those aged 25-29.1
• In developing countries at least 35 per cent of women receive no antenatal care during pregnancy; almost 50 per cent give birth without a skilled attendant; approximately 70 per cent receive no post-partum care in the six weeks following delivery.1
• A study in Mumbai showed that 7,999 out of 8,000 fetuses were aborted when identified as female following prenatal sex determination tests.3

1 Safe Motherhood Initiative www.safemotherhood.org
2 World Health Organization, Making Pregnancy Safer Initiative
3 Makinson, C. (1994) ‘Discrimination against the female child’ International Journal of Gynaecology & Obstetrics 46 p119