8 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Pre-session working group – Zimbabwe 2005-2006 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, 45 per cent of mothers in Zimbabwe have no access to postnatal check up by a trained health provider.6 Amnesty International’s recent report focusing on the Operation Garikai settlement of Hopley in Harare, found that the care available for pregnant women and girls in this settlement during the postnatal period is dangerously inadequate; in cases where women do not manage to make their own arrangements in the absence of public services, care is non-existent.7 Zimbabwe’s failure to respect, protect and fulfil the right to health, including maternal health care, for pregnant women and girls who were affected by Operation Murambatsvina has forced pregnant women and girls in Operation Garikai settlements to deliver at home without a skilled birth attendant, increasing risks to both the woman and her baby. Amnesty International’s study at Hopley identifies 21 cases of newborn deaths, including preterm births that reportedly took place during the first five months of 2010.8 Although the cases were identified though a convenience sampling method, 21 incidents of neonatal deaths in a period of five months for a population of about 5000 people suggests a rate of neonatal deaths in this community which is much higher than the national average rate of 29 neonatal deaths per 1000 live births. There was no official monitoring of births and deaths at the settlement. Women who had experienced home deliveries and community leaders interviewed by Amnesty International, attributed the home deliveries to the government’s failure to provide a maternal health care service at a clinic within the community run by the local authority. Some of the women who had given birth before the mass forced evictions had delivered in hospital. The evidence gathered by Amnesty International at Hopley suggests a link between the newborn deaths and the government’s ongoing failure to provide effective remedies for the 2005 mass forced evictions and failure to ensure access to essential life-saving healthcare. As a result, women’s well-being, health and lives are at risk because the government failed to provide them with access to reproductive and maternal health information and services. the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH). The Consensus sets out the key action steps to save the lives of more than 10 million women and children between by 2015. It was launched at the United Nations on 23 September 2009. 6 Central Statistical Office [Zimbabwe] and Macro International Inc, March 2007, Zimbabwe 2005-06 Demographic and Health Survey, p 129, accessible at: http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR186/FR186.pdf. 7 No Chance to Live, Newborn Deaths at Hopley Settlement, Zimbabwe, AI Index AFR 46/18/2010, December 2010 8 Amnesty International identified the 21 cases of newborn deaths through either interviewing the mothers or family members or community leaders who had direct and specific knowledge of the infant’s death and were able to provide details. Amnesty International June 2011 Index: AFR 46/014/2011