Amnesty International turns spotlight on women's health in Burkina Faso

Women in Burkina Faso, West Africa
Women in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Photograph: Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images

In Burkina Faso, some 2000 women die every year in childbirth. They are not ill. Healthy women rarely die in wealthy countries. Today Amnesty International, better known for pressuring governments to free political prisoners, turns the spotlight on Burkina Faso, declaring that access to the healthcare that could save these women's lives is a human right.

It's an argument that is gaining momentum. Paul Hunt, who was the UN special rapporteur on health as a human right, did a lot of paving of the way. It has powerful implications that apply as much to the US, where healthcare often depends on the size of your wallet, as they do to Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

But the argument is hard to fault, as the report on the plight of women in Burkina Faso makes painfully clear. They don't have a human right to health and when labour goes wrong and they can't get the necessary medical attention quickly, they die.

"Many women die because they need blood but none is available. Others die from obstructed labour, infections or hypertension because they are unable to reach a health facility capable of treating them, or because they arrive too late. Many lose their lives because their relatives cannot pay the fees being asked for by medical personnel. Many more do not even reach health facilities because of geographical, financial or cultural barriers," says the report.

It's a familiar picture across Africa and the most shocking part of it all is the low status of women. They may have to ask their husbands or fathers for permission to go to a health centre and sometimes that can be refused. Very many have no right to limit the size of their families. That is for the husband to decide.

Amnesty's interim secretary general Claudio Cordone said: "Maternal death is a tragedy that robs thousands of families of wives, mothers, sisters and daughters each year. So long as women are not allowed control over their own bodies, they will continue to die in their thousands."

The deaths of women in childbirth are mostly preventable, often mean the death of their baby as well and can have desperate consequences for their other children, who no longer have a mother to support them. The Millennium Development Goal that is most likely to be missed is reducing maternal mortality. If Amnesty International can turn it into a burning human rights issue, it can only help.