106 5 Afulukwe-Eruchalu and Durojaye/Maternal mortality in Africa CONCLUSION The African human rights system continues to play a crucial role in efforts to reduce preventable maternal mortality and morbidity in Africa. Its laws, policies, and programmes have set standards and clarified the obligations of states to uphold human rights guarantees that apply to maternal health. Existing and new standards and initiatives on this issue could benefit from the approaches and lessons learned from the United Nations human rights system. The unified global focus on the SDGs, including the goal to reduce maternal mortality worldwide, and the availability of international cooperation and assistance, and technical guidance offer African governments’ timely opportunities to amplify efforts to address the significant level of preventable pregnancy-related injuries and death. The African Commission and Court’s mandates to promote and protect human rights, and interpret human rights laws and standards, put them in unique positions to identify, operationalise, and ensure the implementation of human rights-based approaches to successfully reduce preventable maternal deaths and injuries in the region. Both the Commission and Court will benefit from the establishment of a special mechanism on human rights in Africa, equivalent to the UNHCHR, to coordinate and operationalise the regional human rights bodies’ and states’ efforts to address preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and other human rights violations.