this, through inter alia, improving equitable access to reproductive health services and ensuring the availability of equipment to deliver such services. 64. The National Health Act states that no citizen may be refused emergency medical treatment and, in Section 20, provides for a fine and imprisonment for noncompliance. The Complainants add that in reality however, pregnant women are frequently denied emergency obstetric care, particularly women with low levels of income and women living in rural areas. 65. They further state that the right to life is also enshrined in international human rights instruments that Nigeria has ratified. In this respect, based on the interpretation of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Complainants maintain that the realisation of the right to health requires that governments guarantee the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of this right to all. 66. In their submissions, the Complainants reiterate the African Commission's Principles and Guidelines on the Implementation of Socio-Economic Rights in the African Charter and General Comment No. 14 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on.the Right to Health, which address some key principles, including the existence of minimum core obligations that States should guarantee, that are not subject to the requirements of resource availability and that cannot be waived. Violation of the right to dignity and the right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment 67. The Complainants clai11lthat dignity is the foundation of all human rights and, therefore, the right t~ life has been widely interpreted by the courts as the right to live in dignity. They add that the fundamental principle of human dignity requires States to protect women from maternal deaths caused by gender-based violence and denial of access to reproductive health care and information. The right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (ill- treatment) is closely related to the right to dignity. 68.