Page 39 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family

planning”.

CEDAW also specifies that women have the right to decide freely and responsibly on the number

and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means to
enable them to exercise these rights.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child requires states parties to “take appropriate measures

to ensure appropriate pre-natal and post-natal health care for mothers”.

According to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2005, “200 million women have an unmet

need for safe and effective contraceptive services”.

The report cites the changes in Bangladesh and Egypt where maternal mortality was reduced

significantly by increasing women’s access to skilled birth attendants and better obstetric services.
However, the situation in sub-Saharan Africa has not changed significantly since 1990.

Nurses and the Millennium Development Goals

Nursing and midwifery services contribute to the achievement of these [MDG health-related] goals

in ways such as the following:

• monitoring poverty, by documenting the prevalence of underweight children, child and

maternal mortality;

• promoting gender equality, by educating girls and women about health issues;

• reducing child and maternal mortality, by delivering maternal and child health services and

providing access to safe, effective contraception;

• combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, by lowering their prevalence through activities
directed towards prevention and treatment and reducing stigma and discrimination;

36 Academic Year 2025/2026