A/HRC/26/4 7. The Government had actively promoted and protected civil and political rights in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was a good example in the region with respect to promoting freedom of speech, freedom of the media and freedom of associations without censorship. 8. The President of Afghanistan constantly met with representatives of national and international media, human rights activists and women’s rights defenders. The High Council of Media, composed of representatives of civil society, media groups and the Ministry of Information and Culture, was working to protect the rights and activities of the media and journalists. 9. Afghanistan was currently preparing for the presidential and provincial council elections. The Government had invited international observers to monitor the process of fair and free elections. According to the Independent Election Commission, in 2013 3,305,799 citizens, 1,140,854 of whom were women, had received voting cards to participate in the elections. Human rights organizations and civil society activists would closely monitor the upcoming elections. The political opposition groups freely organized their political programmes without any intervention from the Government. There were 59 registered political parties in Afghanistan. 10. Afghan citizens had access to health care, education, employment and trade unions. 11. The Constitution guaranteed education as a right of all citizens; education was provided free of charge and in native languages up to the bachelor’s degree level . 12. Owing to efforts made by Afghanistan to improve the quality and quantity of education, the following progress had been made between 2009 and 2013: • Schools had been constructed, increasing the total number from 11,460 schools in 2009 to 15,169 in 2013; of those, 2,267 were allocated to girls • The number of students had increased from 6,504,715 in 2009 to 8,643,940 in 2013; of those, 3,353,991 were female • A total of 135 million books had been printed between 2009 and 2013, at a cost of US$ 90 million • The number of students enrolled in vocational schools had increased from 18,296 in 2009 to 71,625 in 2013; 11 per cent of those were female • The number of training centres for literacy had increased from 20,031 in 2009 to 26,486 in 2013, providing courses to 563,460 students • Total enrolment in higher education had increased from 52,000 in 2009 to 220,000 in 2013 13. In accordance with the Constitution, the Government was obliged to provide free health services for all Afghan citizens without any discrimination. 14. With respect to health services, various policies and strategies had been developed. Of particular note were: the public health programme entitled “Health for all Afghans”, covering the period 2012–2020; the System Enhancement for Health Action in Transition project, aimed at supporting health-care provision for the period 2013–2018; the Health and Human Rights Strategy and the Gender Strategy; and the Health Financing Policy 2012– 2020. 15. Recent data indicated that substantial improvements had been made in the healthcare sector. For example, the maternal mortality ratio had dropped from 1,600 to 327 deaths per 100,000 live births, the under-five mortality rate had been reduced from 257 to 97 deaths per 1,000 live births and the infant mortality rate had decreased from 129 to 77 4