88 Afulukwe-Eruchalu and Durojaye/Maternal mortality in Africa providers to provide maternal health care services to pregnant women.29 Accessibility is made up of four elements-physical, economic, non-discrimination and information. This will require states to provide maternal health care services that are physically and financially accessible to all pregnant women, especially those in rural areas. It will also require states to address discriminatory laws, policies, practices and gender inequalities in health care and in society that prevent women and adolescent girls from accessing good quality services, including maternal care services. Information accessibility requires states to ensure that women and adolescents enjoy access to sexual and reproductive health information. This will require states to remove legal and policy as well as socio-cultural barriers to information on sexual and reproductive health. Acceptability requires that services must be respectful of the culture of individuals, minorities, peoples and communities and sensitive to gender and life-cycle requirements.30 States must ensure that maternal services are sensitive to the rights, cultures and needs of pregnant women, including those from indigenous peoples and other minority groups. Moreover, States are expected to ensure that maternal health care services are medically appropriate and of good quality. 2.2 The right to life The right to life is often regarded as one of the most fundamental of all human rights.31 It is guaranteed in international and regional human rights instruments and national law including articles 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)32 and 5 of the African Charter. As affirmed at the Vienna Programme of Action, all human rights (whether civil and political or socioeconomic rights), are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent.33 Consequently, the violation of the right to health may result in the violation of the right to life.34 This is even more pertinent with regard to maternal injuries and deaths, as deaths during pregnancy are largely avoidable. Previously, the right to life had been construed narrowly to impose negative obligations on the state to refrain from taking life. However, decisions of regional human rights bodies and national courts have affirmed that 29 As above 7. As above. 31 See General Comment 6 of the Human Rights Committee on article 6 of the ICCPR. 32 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted in 1966 entered into force on 23 March 1976. 33 Adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna on 25 June 1993. 34 See for instance, Committee on ESCR General Comment No 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, UN Doc E/C/12/2000/4 para 3. See also AE Yamin `Not just a tragedy: access to medication as a right under international law’ (2003) 21 Boston University International Law Journal 370. 30