A/HRC/13/56 broad definition of what constituted encouragement of terrorism and terrorist acts. It called on the Government to respect and promote the rights of human rights defenders, notably by significantly amending these laws. It asked whether the Government would be willing to extend an invitation to the special rapporteurs on the situation of human rights defenders and on the right to freedom of opinion and expression. 763. Amnesty International urged Ethiopia to review the rejection of recommendations to amend the charities and societies proclamation, as well as the rejection of amending the anti-terrorism proclamation to make it consistent with international human rights standards. It welcomed the acceptance of the recommendations to upgrade land and water resources and to request technical assistance in relation to education, health, housing and food security. It encouraged Ethiopia to facilitate the visits of the Special Rapporteur on torture and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, requested in 2005 and 2008 respectively. 764. The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network stated that the criminal prohibitions on sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex under article 629 of the Penal Code were a violation of established international human rights law. It urged Ethiopia to repeal legislative provisions that criminalized sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex. It also urged Ethiopia to take measures to recognize and protect the rights of sexual and gender minorities, and to extend HIV intervention programmes in this regard. 765. Interfaith International congratulated Ethiopia on the institutional reforms undertaken in recent years, and encouraged it to engage in a sincere dialogue to consider the possibility of implementing recommendations that it had not accepted. It recalled that, after the parliamentary elections in 2005, many cases of violence, torture and arrests of protesters had taken place. Interfaith International called upon Ethiopia to shed light on the grave violation of human rights committed against demonstrators, and encouraged it to conduct an investigation with a view to prosecuting all those responsible for crimes and grave violations of human rights during the prior administration. 766. The World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) regretted that Ethiopia was unwilling to repeal or amend the recently enacted civil society law, and urged it to reconsider its rejection of recommendations 23 to 27. This law violated Ethiopia’s obligations under international human rights law. The impact of this law was that many human rights organizations had abandoned their work or had ceased to exist. It referred to the code of conduct for political parties, and stated that one of the leading opposition parties had been left out of the negotiations on the code, but had raised issues of the fairness of the electoral platform. 4. Concluding remarks of the State under review 767. The delegation appreciated the positive comments and observations, which would encourage Ethiopia to persevere in the promotion and protection of human rights. Regarding the non-governmental organizations that had spoken, it could not reply because they were outside the rules of procedure of the Council with regard to the universal periodic review. The issues should have been raised under other agenda items, so the delegation would not respond to them. The delegation regarded some of the non-governmental organizations as well-known detractors. It had asked them to be fair, objective and constructive, but this had repeatedly failed. The delegation thanked the non-governmental organizations that had made constructive comments. 768. In closing, the delegation stressed that, in general, it would take all recommendations into consideration. It took note of all recommendations, including those that, for the time being, it had rejected, but which would be further studied. With regard to the recommendations on the two optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the 193