Digging Her Grave: Gender-Responsive Climate Legislation and Litigation to Address Climate Change Impacts on Maternal Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Maternal mortality is an urgent global health crisis, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa,
where women face the highest risk of death during pregnancy and birth. Climate change
exacerbates maternal health risks, disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable
women. Despite regional and international human rights and environmental law
frameworks recognizing the rights to life; health; and a clean, healthy, and sustainable
environment, these systems often operate in silos and fail to address the intersectional
threat climate change poses to maternal health. This article proposes a gender-responsive
approach to climate action and maternal health with three recommendations: (1)
establishing a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe and
Dignified Maternal Health; (2) leveraging strategic litigation—such as KlimaSeniorinnen
v. Switzerland—to hold governments accountable; and (3) funding region-specific
climate studies to empower women and inform legal claims. By developing a legal
framework that centers the rights and lived realities of pregnant and recently pregnant
women in climate-vulnerable regions, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, the international
community can more effectively uphold human rights and prevent climate-exacerbated
maternal mortality.