Breastfeeding is a human rights issue within the wider consideration of children’s health. The United Nations Human Rights Council includes breastfeeding and implementation of policy on milk formula products when assessing countries for implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.¹

In its wide-ranging review on the UK, published in May 2016, the UNHRC notes “the extremely low rate of breastfeeding, the fact that only 1 per cent of women maintained exclusive breastfeeding for six months in 2010, and the inadequate regulation of marketing of breast-milk substitutes.”

It wants the government to “promote, protect and support breastfeeding in all policy areas where breastfeeding has an impact on child health, including obesity, some non-communicable diseases and mental health.”