In 2004, the Center for Reproductive Rights launched a global initiative to promote the use of strategic litigation for the advancement of women’s reproductive rights worldwide. Inspired by the use of public interest litigation in India as a tool for advancing social justice and promoting human rights, the Center organized the first ever training on reproductive rights for lawyers in India in 2006, in collaboration with Human Rights Law Network. It was at this meeting that the potential for developing constitutional litigation to address maternal mortality through the use of international norms and comparative law was discussed in great depth for the first time. The discussions that took place at this training, and which followed later at various meetings and consultations, provide the inspiration for this report. We hope it will be used as a tool to help establish a protective legal environment based on human rights principles and norms that will enable women to exercise their right to survive pregnancy and childbirth and lead healthy and productive lives. We further hope that this report will serve as a useful resource for lawyers, judges, academics, activists, students and others who seek to challenge and dismantle discriminatory norms and practices that contribute to gender inequality in Indian society – an inequality that is continuously manifested in the huge number of preventable and foreseeable maternal deaths that occur each year.