A/HRC/41/8/Add.1 8 of that article deals with the commission of an offence against a woman on grounds of hatred, contempt or disrespect because she is a woman. These provisions have been applied in Uruguayan courts’ decisions. 12. 13. Act No. 19.222 concerning affirmative action in favour of persons of African descent was approved as part of the process of modifying the legal framework of our country. An account of it is provided in the national report. Last year, in an effort to consolidate this normative and institutional process, the Department of Persons of African Descent was set up in the Human Rights Department of the National Directorate for Sociocultural Promotion at the Ministry of Social Development and the National Racial Equality Council was set up under Act No. 19.670 (October 2018). 14. The country-wide process of drawing up and discussing what became the National Racial Equality Plan, presented on 21 March of this year, was coordinated with this Council, drawing on the National Strategy of public policies for people of African descent. This plan has the following aims: • Identify, arrange and guide public policies aimed at promoting the economic, social and political inclusion of persons of African descent at the national level, by allocating resources and priority to the management of the relevant organizations and institutions; • Promote the social participation of persons of African descent in the country in dialogue with representatives of government bodies in general and with the National Racial Equality Council in particular, thereby giving rise to institutional interlinkage, with the aim of designing, implementing, assessing and monitoring public policy reflecting an ethno-racial perspective; • Incorporate an ethno-racial perspective in policies, programmes and projects in order to remove the persistent inequality gap by setting management and process targets and indicators for measuring their actual applicability over time. 118.23, 118.24, 118.25, 118.26 15. Being implemented. 118.27, 118.28, 118.29 16. Being implemented. 17. Attention is drawn to the approval of Act No. 19.670 setting up the National Sexual Diversity Council, a body which follows up and monitors the National Sexual Diversity Plan and the implementation of legislation promoting the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. 118.30 18. Being implemented. 118.31, 118.32, 118.33, 118.34, 118.35, 118.36, 118.37, 118.38, 118.39, 118.40, 118.41, 118.42, 118.43, 118.44, 118.45, 118.46, 118.47 19. Uruguay accepts the recommendations concerning the penitentiary system, as they are in line with its ongoing policies undertaken with a view to expanding, deepening and consolidating prison reform as human rights-based public policy which gives particular priority to widening public health coverage in prisons, mental health care, treatment of addiction, suitable formal or informal education programmes for inmates, vocational training programmes and reintegration measures for released prisoners, all of which form part of rehabilitation schemes based on the Nelson Mandela Rules. 118.47, 118.48, 118.49, 118.50, 118.51, 118.66, 118.67, 118.68, 118.69 20. Since 2015 Uruguay has been engaged in a process of continuously improving youth detention conditions in order to comply with the rules on the protection of human rights. GE.19-07103 3