Progress has been made in reducing maternal and child mortality, yet millions continue to die from preventable causes. These deaths represent an accountability challenge and a major concern shared by both the health and human rights communities. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) commit to reducing these deaths. Powerful complementarities exist between MDGs and human rights.1 The MDGs generate attention, mobilise resources and contribute technical health monitoring approaches. Human rights offer a fundamental emphasis on accountability, systematic and sustained attention to inequities and a legal grounding of commitments. This knowledge summary explores human rights accountability systems at community, country, regional and international levels and the potential synergies for achieving both human rights and public health goals including, and beyond, the MDGs.