This article describes an approach to maternal mortality reduction that uses human rights not simply to denounce the injustice of death in pregnancy and childbirth, but also to guide the design and implementation of maternal mortality policies and programs. As a first principle, programs and policies need to prioritize measures that promote universal access to high quality emergency obstetric care services, which we know from health research are essential to saving women's lives. With that priority, human rights principles can be integrated into programs at the clinical, facility management, and national policy levels. For example, a human rights 'audit' can help identify ways to encourage respectful, non-discriminatory treatment of patients, providers and staff in the clinical setting. Human rights principles of entitlement and accountability can inform mechanisms of community participation designed to improve responsiveness and functioning of health facilities. Human rights principles can inform analysis of health sector reform and its impact on access to emergency obstetric care. Whether applied to the intricacies of human relationships within a facility or to the impact of international financial institutions on health systems, the ultimate role of human rights is to identify the workings of power that keep unacceptable levels of maternal morality as they are and to use the human rights vision of dignity and social justice to work for the re-arrangements of power necessary for change.