Hon. Salma Ataullahjan: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak on maternal and newborn health, an issue near and dear to my heart for many years.

In the past, I took the lead as the rapporteur for the IPU’s Committee on Democracy and Human Rights in drafting a report on the role of parliaments in assisting women and children’s health services. I also played a critical role in the landmark resolution on the matter, and I’m proud to say that it was the first time a resolution of its kind was adopted by the IPU.

For those of you who are not familiar with the IPU, it’s the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which consists of 179 countries. It predates the League of Nations, which means it’s older than the United Nations too.

I am particularly proud of my work on the accountability mechanism meant to monitor the progress of member parliaments in implementing the resolution. We cannot simply make commitments but forget about them as new issues arise. As a result, I was named IPU’s Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal and Newborn Child Health.

Although my work on maternal and newborn health has fallen to the sidelines in the last few years, I am honoured to be hosting an event tonight, along with our former colleague the Honourable Asha Seth, who has done incredible work on nutrition. The reception will highlight Canada’s leadership in global newborn and child health, and we will have the pleasure of hearing from Nutrition International’s Director of Global Advocacy.

It will be a good occasion to remind ourselves of the importance of advocating for this often-forgotten basic human right. In Canada, about 50 to 85 women die each year in childbirth or during postpartum, and over half of those mothers’ babies die as well. Our country still has a lot of work to do to ensure that Canadian mothers and their babies get a healthy start to life.

I am grateful to the former senator Seth for her continued advocacy for maternal, newborn and child health. Thank you.