In 2006 the HeRWAI manual has been distributed amongst 400 civil society organizations. HeRWAI is available online free of charge in English and Spanish. The many requests for printed versions show a clear need for a practical tool on health rights. To introduce the method, Aim for human rights organised workshops in and outside the Netherlands. Co-financing organisations like ICCO, HIVOS, and NiZA also received such an introduction, with the view of distributing the document amongst their partner organisations. Aim for human rights also assisted organisations online on the application of the instrument.

Since the publication of the manual at the end of 2006, many organisations started using it in their work. They applied the tool among others to combat maternal mortality, to improve the situation of sex workers, to defend the right to  maternal leave and to arrange better education on sexual and reproductive rights. See the practical application of HeRWAI. 

Naripokkho is a network of activists for women's rights. It used HeRWAI to assess the impact of the “Bangladesh National Strategy for Maternal Health” on the prevention of maternal mortality. In Bangladesh an alarming number of women die during pregnancy or child birth. The Strategy for Maternal Health has high ambitions to reduce these numbers. The analysis of Naripokkho revealed however, that the measures mainly benefit middle and upper-middle class women. Rural and poor women did not participate in the development of the strategy. They have too little information about where they can get treatment and due to a number of reasons they often reach health facilities too late. The analysis of Naripokkho resulted in a large number of recommendations and an action plan. On the basis of these, Naripokkho lobbies for trained care at home for pregnant women. See the summary

Other organisations use HeRWAI as basis to develop tools for their own activities. The international health organisation People’s Health Movement (PHM) approached Aim for human rights in 2006 to jointly write a handbook on general health rights. With the handbook one can evaluate where a country has a deficiency and which priorities need to be made. The report has been finalised in mid 2006 and is used at the moment by PHM to measure the state of health rights in twenty countries. The outcomes are used for lobby with governments and international campaigns. 
Professor Paul Hunt, the special representative of the United nations for the right to health, has used HeRWAI as the base for a study on impact assessment in the field of human rights. In this study two other methods were examined. The report gives recommendations on how governments can measure the effects of policies on the human rights situation in their country. Aim for human rights participated in the expert group that commented on the report.

For more information on health rights of women and HeRWAI contact Marije Nederveen by phone +31 (0)30 233 40 27 or e-mail.