As the world wrestles with the growing global recession, and the need to save large banks and multi-national corporations, we are not paying enough attention to ensuring that the needs of women and children are met.

Since 1990 an estimated 10 million women have died from complications related to child birth. Nigeria, which is the most populous country in Africa, and India account's for one-third of all maternal deaths around the world.

More striking, a woman dies from pregnancy or childbirth causes every minute of everyday, amounting to more than 500,000 women per year.

Why aren't these frightening statistics a major topic of discussion in our communities? Most of the deaths are occurring in developing countries, like Nigeria, or war-torn countries like Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; countries that seem far removed from our everyday reality.

The reality is that we continue to live in a world where women and children are largely marginalized and where not enough attention is placed on demanding a rights-based approach to policy. Our basic rights are enshrined not only in the U.S. Constitution, but also in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Everyone, including women, has the right to an adequate standard of living, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, work, and necessary social services. Everyone has the right to education: education that “shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

And our children have rights. They have the right to develop, the right to protection from abuse. They have the right to life, to respect for their views, nondiscrimination, and devotion to their best interests, including health care, education, and legal rights. These rights are included in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

Yet, too many of our policymakers focus on pragmatic and expedient goals, and addressing the needs of the powerful. And we, as a community, are frequently unaware of our rights and do not hold our representatives accountable for advancing those rights.

This month Congress is set to vote on a wartime supplemental bill that will set aside billions to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Imagine if those funds were used to invest in the common public good: health care, food security, nutrition, education.

Imagine if the millions who voted in historic numbers last November demanded substantive change from all our policymakers for women and children. Imagine if we demand that, in addition to the stimulus package, more resources be directed to saving lives as opposed to war and weapons.

The 500,000 women around the world, who died in 2008, require that we do more than imagine. The children of those women, who face a life of deprivation, poverty, and erosion of their rights to life, education, and standard of living, demand that we do more.

You can begin today by taking two simple steps. First, learn your rights by accessing a copy of the UN Human Rights Declaration. You can find it online or at your local library. Second, contact your Members of Congress and demand that they begin to work for you to guarantee your rights and the rights of our children.

Send an email. Make a call. You elected them with hope behind your vote. Now make them put women and children first.

(Nicole C. Lee is the executive director of TransAfrica Forum.)