A/HRC/37/17 79. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland encouraged Sri Lanka to continue its work on reconciliation and to adopt an action plan to implement its Human Rights Council resolution commitments. 80. The United States welcomed progress on returning occupied lands and operationalizing the Office on Missing Persons. It expressed concern at reports of abuses by the security forces and increased violence against religious minorities. 81. Sri Lanka noted the Policy Framework and all-encompassing National Plan of Action on Sexual and Gender-based Violence 2016–2020. It also noted a new referral system with a multisectoral approach, introduced in six districts, to facilitate effective response to, and the prevention of, incidents of sexual and gender-based violence; regular educational and awareness-raising programmes in 356 divisional secretariats; and psychosocial support for victims in 321 divisional secretariats. The National Committee on Women received complaints on gender-based violence through its complaint centre and 1938 helpline, and counselling centres had been established in 40 major hospitals. Six shelters had been established in different locations, for survivors of such violence, and two more shelters were expected to be established during 2017. 82. Sri Lanka noted that the general right to equality and non-discrimination, reflected in the Constitution, implicitly included non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and that the present constitutional reform process included consideration of an explicit guarantee of non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. It referred to the pronouncement by the Supreme Court that imposing custodial sentences would be inappropriate in cases where the impugned acts were between consenting adults. 83. Sri Lanka noted that draft legislation had been prepared to give effect to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which it had ratified in 2016. It had also ratified the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled, in September 2016, and the Cabinet of Ministers had approved the drafting of a bill on sign language. The Ministry of Public Administration had instructed all ministries, departments and corporations that 3 per cent of vacancies in the public service and public corporations were to be filled by persons with disabilities with the requisite qualifications. Sri Lanka also stressed that several welfare programmes had been established to provide support to persons with disabilities, including financial assistance to low-income families with persons with disabilities, and public officials had been trained on sign language, Braille methodology, mobility and orientation, in order to enable them to provide a better service. Sri Lanka emphasized that SL Rs 2.7 billion had been proposed under the 2018 budget to construct homes for differently abled women in the North and the East. 84. Sri Lanka had declared 2017 as the year of alleviating poverty, and had launched a nationwide people’s movement for poverty alleviation, called “Gramashakthi”. It noted that a ministerial committee and an experts’ committee had been appointed to formulate the National Sustainable Development Vision 2030, which outlined strategies for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The first draft report of the experts’ committee had been presented to the President in November 2017. 85. Sri Lanka stated that the committee appointed to review the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code had commenced discussions on the matter of criminalizing marital rape, which was presently recognized only in respect of non-consensual sexual relations during a judicial separation of the spouses. 86. Uruguay highlighted the abolition of the practice of executions by judicial order, and noted that constitutional reform proposals extended non-discrimination grounds to disability and to sexual orientation and gender identity. 87. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela welcomed the ratification of human rights treaties, and initiatives on free and equal access to education and achieving universal vaccination coverage. 88. Viet Nam welcomed the National Human Rights Action Plan 2017–2021, and initiatives that Sri Lanka had undertaken, including on women’s and children’s rights, 8