Obstetric violence as a violation of human rights

The text concerns obstetric violence from the perspective of international human rights law, from a universal-United Nations perspective. The main forms of obstetric violence are identified, including forced medical procedures, denial of anaesthesia, verbal abuse and invasion of privacy. Systemic causes of this phenomenon, such as gender inequality, medical paternalism and lack of patient rights education, were discussed. An important point, the aim was to focus attention on the need to recognise obstetric violence as a significant human rights problem requiring systemic solutions at national and international levels.