A/HRC/10/29 them in activities to combat female genital mutilation and HIV/AIDS; such a mobilization would help reduce the number of HIV/AIDS infections. It stressed the importance of disseminating information on the law to combat excision in rural areas and to have this law translated into the various local languages. In reference to the Working Group report, Action Canada for Population and Development reminded Burkina Faso to step up its efforts to include information on human rights in school programmes and to provide youth workers with human rights education and training material in order to promote human rights education through youth centres. 590. Franciscans International welcomed the recommendations concerning trafficking in persons accepted by Burkina Faso. It noted the State’s commitment to intensifying its efforts in combating trafficking in women and girls for the purposes of sexual exploitation. It stated that trafficking in persons in Burkina Faso also took place for the purposes of forced labour, mainly involving children. It indicated that an overall approach to trafficking was required, and should be based on the effective implementation of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime ratified by Burkina Faso. It also noted that Burkina Faso was a country of origin, transit and destination for trafficking in persons in rural and urban areas. In addition to stepping up its national plan of action, as recommended during the universal periodic review, it highlighted the need to apply a regional strategy for combating trafficking in human beings, particularly through the effective implementation of the agreements reached on 6 July 2006 in Abuja. Fanciscans International encouraged Burkina Faso to invite the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons and urged it to reconsider rejecting the recommendations calling for extending a standing invitation to all special procedures mandate holders. It noted that the mismanagement of the agricultural sector was one of the reasons for the severe impact of the food crisis on Burkina Faso in 2008. Recalling the State’s commitment to continue its efforts to consolidate economic, social and cultural rights, it encouraged the Government to pay particular attention to the right to food and recommended that it set up a national body to analyse the causes and consequences of the food crisis and to develop guidelines that would constitute a framework programme. 591. The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues noted the numerous commitments made by Burkina Faso in the Working Group report, in particular in paragraphs 7 to 33. It however deplored the fact that most of the recommendations not accepted by Burkina Faso regarded areas of serious concern for the people of Burkina Faso. It noted in particular that the recommendation on the independence of justice mentioned in paragraph 58 (a) had been rejected, whereas the impediments to the independence and good functioning of the judiciary remained considerable, leading to a crisis of confidence in this connection. It also noted that the recommendations on the freedom of the press had not been accepted by Burkina Faso either. It stressed that, at the beginning of 2009, a number of journalists had been threatened because of their investigations into the financial dealings of certain public officials. It called on Burkina Faso to take into account all of the recommendations made during the universal periodic review, and in particular to guarantee the independence of the judiciary, freedom of expression through a free and independent press, to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to adopt a law abolishing the death penalty and commuting all death sentences already pronounced to alternative penalties and to allow special procedures mandate holders to visit the country. 592. Cercle de recherche sur les droits et les devoirs de la personne humaine stated that the people of Burkina Faso were known to be free and honest and that the Government had made the promotion of human rights the focus of its national policy and its legal and normative approach. It noted that the Constitution of Burkina Faso proclaims peoples’ rights and duties, and congratulated Burkina Faso on being at the forefront of positions 184 GE.09-17451