A/HRC/13/56 conduct. A free and unrestricted political campaign, based on a mutually agreed framework on a fair and equitable use of publicly owned media, had already commenced. An independent and well-funded national electoral board had been established. Vibrant private media were engaged in the process, and the Government had invited international observers to observe the elections. 741. Ethiopia referred to questions raised on laws regarding the media, non-governmental organizations and charities, and combating terrorism. While willing to engage in dialogue, the Government had found no merit in recommendations to repeal laws for which enormous resources had been spent to articulate and were considered vital. Sufficient time should be given to the implementation of these laws to identify possible gaps, if any, and consider how these gaps could be filled. Some of the criticisms expressed with respect to the proclamation on charities and societies were quite unfounded. All existing nongovernmental organizations had been registered without any restrictions, in line with the procedures of the proclamation. The Government believed that the civil society law helped to further implement international norms and principles governing the role of human rights defenders, including the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. 742. The delegation addressed questions raised regarding the “detention and arrest of prisoners”, including the case of Birtukan Midekssa, who was among a number of opposition leaders arrested in 2005 and released after being granted a conditional pardon in line with proclamation 395/2004. While Ms. Midekssa had chosen to publicly proclaim that she had never requested a pardon, relevant Government officials, consistent with the procedure for revocation of pardon as stipulated in the proclamation, had given sufficient warning and opportunity for Ms. Midekssa to rectify her statement. 743. With regard to recommendations to abolish the death penalty, pursuant to the revised federal criminal code, the death penalty was only applied for exceptionally grave crimes, and actual executions rarely occurred, amounting to a de facto moratorium. 744. The Federal Constitution explicitly guaranteed the right of the child to be free from corporal punishment. The Criminal Code provided for measures and penalties applicable to young persons, and these enumerations did not include corporal punishment. 745. The delegation recalled that Ethiopia was unable to accept only a small number of recommendations. It emphasized that not being able to accept for the time being some recommendations did not necessarily amount to reservations or policy pronouncements cast in stone. The Government’s position was to continue to study and consider seriously all recommendations, and had taken note of the recommendations in question. 746. While highlighting the fact that many shortcomings stemmed from underdevelopment and poverty, the delegation stated that the Government continued, nevertheless, to improve its capacity even further. It accepted all recommendations calling for greater collaboration with OHCHR. In this regard, a national consultative workshop on devising a road map for the development of a national action plan for the promotion and protection of human rights in Ethiopia had been held in Addis Ababa on 15 March 2010, organized by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission in collaboration with the OHCHR Regional Office for East Africa. Specific measures would be taken as a follow-up to the recommendations of the workshop, which had enjoyed the participation of all levels of Government, national human rights institutions, members of civil society and other stakeholders. 747. According to the delegation, the review process had proven an important venue for the assessment of human rights performance, and hoped that all engaged would continue to support endeavours to implement the outcome. 190