A/HRC/42/13 105. Ireland welcomed the announcement of a draft bill to abolish the death penalty and called on the authorities to take the necessary steps to ensure its swift implementation. It remained concerned about lack of progress, particularly regarding freedom of expression and of association. 106. Italy welcomed the State’s accession to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, important measures to combat human trafficking, smuggling of migrants and violence against women and to promote gender equality, and the adoption in 2014 of a moratorium on the death penalty. 107. Kyrgyzstan noted efforts to accede to international instruments in the fields of gender equality and the protection of the rights of the child. It supported legislative steps in those areas while expressing the belief that more could be done. 108. Latvia noted measures taken since the previous review in the field of the promotion and protection of human rights and encouraged Equatorial Guinea to make further efforts to fulfil its human rights obligations and commitments. 109. Libya commended the efforts made by Equatorial Guinea to implement recommendations from the previous cycles and to strengthen the rule of law, and its accession to the United Nations Convention against Corruption. 110. Madagascar welcomed the State’s efforts to implement the recommendations that it had accepted during the previous review cycle and encouraged it to continue in that vein. 111. Mali welcomed measures taken to improve access to education for all children, including the creation of a special service within the Ministry of Education to support students with disabilities. It encouraged Equatorial Guinea to continue its efforts to strengthen the capacity of public institutions for the defence of human rights. 112. Mauritania welcomed progress achieved by Equatorial Guinea, particularly noting the implementation of the Major Programme on Water for All, which was aimed at ensuring access to drinking water and the sanitation network through the expansion of networks in the main cities and provincial capitals. 113. Mexico welcomed progress since the previous review cycle, in particular the moratorium on the death penalty and the proposed draft bill to abolish the death penalty, which was currently before Parliament. 114. Montenegro commended the State for its activities to promote human rights through training and education. It expressed concern about the high prevalence of domestic violence, and urged Equatorial Guinea to ensure the full protection of children’s rights by explicitly prohibiting the corporal punishment of children and child labour by law. 115. Portugal welcomed the delegation and thanked it for the presentation of the national report. 116. Maldives acknowledged progress made by Equatorial Guinea in providing access to education for children and positively noted the increase in school enrolment for primary education, including among children with disabilities. 117. The delegation of Equatorial Guinea noted the questions raised and recommendations made on issues including the ratification of international instruments, corruption, the death penalty, improvement of the judiciary, freedom of information, the work of NGOs and human rights defenders, opening of political space, employment for all, the combat against poverty, strengthening of the education system, the National Economic and Social Development Plan for Horizon 2020, climate change, discrimination and violence against women, protection of persons with disabilities and migrants and improvement of the gathering of statistics in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals. The delegation indicated that those issues would be further examined and provided clarification with respect to certain questions. 118. Regarding the ministerial order prohibiting pregnant girls from attending school, the measure was applied only to girls in primary school, who were very young and should not be together with other young girls while pregnant. On early marriage, no one in the country 10