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deaths per 1,000 live births. About 46 per cent of infants had received the measles
vaccination and the rate of polio vaccination had increased from 50 to 95 per cent.
16.
The main challenge, however, was the lack of security in some of the remote areas
of Afghanistan. Terrorist groups targeted schools, hospitals and other public-service
institutions. Teachers, health workers, women activists and childcare staff were considered
to be the most targeted groups.
17.
The Government continued the process of legal reform in the light of the
international conventions that Afghanistan had ratified. The Government had reviewed 73
laws, 34 regulations and 27 strategies, including the Civil Code, the Penal Code, the
Juvenile Code, the Elimination of Violence against Women Law and the Citizenship Law.
18.
Women’s rights and gender equality remained a top priority for the Government.
Afghan women constituted 27 per cent of legislators in the Parliament. Women occupied 25
per cent of government jobs, including 9 per cent of those at decision-making levels. Girls
currently represented about 40 per cent of the nearly 9 million children attending school in
Afghanistan. About 30 per cent of the school teachers and 15 per cent of the university
lecturers were women. In terms of the workforce in other areas, Afghan women constituted
24 per cent in the health-care sector, 5 per cent in security and 30 per cent in agriculture.
Women also accounted for 20 per cent of the enrolment in higher education and 35 per cent
of the participants in vocational training. Women represent at least 50 per cent of those
working in the country’s independent media and civil society groups.
19.
In addition to fostering greater participation of women in the above-mentioned
sectors, the Government had adopted various measures for the protection of women and the
prevention of violence against them in the previous four years. Of particular note were: (a)
the adoption of the Elimination of Violence against Women Law; (b) the establishment of
special prosecution offices for cases of violence against women; (c) the establishment of the
High Commission for Prevention of Violence against Women and provincial offices thereof
in 23 provinces; (d) the establishment of 16 protection centres/shelters for women victims
of family violence; (e) the establishment of departments of women’s affairs in 32
provinces; (f) the establishment of gender units in 22 ministries; and (g) the establishment
of a gender and human rights unit within the police academy.
20.
The Government was developing a national plan of action on women, peace and
security for beyond 2014, with a view to adopting additional measures to increase the
participation of women, to prevent violence against women and to provide relief and
recovery services.
21.
The Government had adopted appropriate measures to ensure that children were
protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the legislative
provisions of the Labour Law, the Juvenile Code and the human trafficking law and of the
policy provisions and activities under, inter alia, the National Strategy for Children at Risk
and the national plan of action on children in armed conflict. Afghanistan had also received
from the United Nations a 15-point road map on further implementation of the national plan
of action on children in armed conflict that the Government intended to approve and
implement.
22.
The Government continued to stand firm in fighting corruption. Several measures,
including the adoption of the Anti-Corruption Law and the establishment of civil and
military anti-corruption prosecution units and tribunals, had been taken.
23.
The Constitution prohibited torture and inhuman, humiliating and cruel punishment
under all circumstances. In order to track torture-related cases, human rights units and
supervisory boards had been established in the Ministry of the Interior, the National
Directorate of Security and the Ministry of Defence. The second report of Afghanistan
5
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