A/HRC/13/56 criminalized activity between consenting adults of the same sex, to take measures to recognize and protect the rights of sexual and gender minorities, and to extend its HIV intervention programmes to include same-sex practising people. 288. Conscience and Peace Tax International stated that Eritrea had rejected all recommendations relating to military service, except those included under the heading of domestic and sexual violence and exploitation of female soldiers, without addressing their prevention. It added that the current military service system was an important cause of the flood of refugees from Eritrea in recent years. It added that Eritrea should take effective measures to prevent the recruitment of persons under 18 years of age into the military forces. It stated that conscientious objectors had been imprisoned, and made reference to the specific situation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It called on States to give adequate protection to all Eritreans who had fled the country, and particularly to conscientious objectors. 4. Concluding remarks of the State under review 289. The delegation indicated that Eritrea firmly believed that promoting, establishing and protecting the freedom, liberty and dignity of the human person was a process achieved only through time. No nation had been automatically created as a bastion of human rights. Ensuring human rights in all its forms entailed a process, struggle and paying a price. On that score, Eritrea was on the right path and was willing to bet that its record could stack up with that of most nations. 290. In its short history as an independent State, Eritrea had made progress in the sectors of the rights of children, women and youth, the justice system, food security, education, health, human welfare, transportation, energy, and water and sanitation, to name a few. All this was testimony to its commitment to the promotion and protection of the rights of its citizens. 291. Eritrea recognized the challenges it faced in the human rights area. These challenges emanated from two sources: insufficiency of human, financial and institutional capacity; and interference of certain outside forces that disregarded Eritrea’s legitimate national and regional interests. 292. Despite these challenges, the delegation assured the Council and other human rights stakeholders that the people and Government of Eritrea were committed to the promotion and protection of human rights and to engage with the international community in this area, in the spirit of dialogue and on the basis of mutual respect. Eritrea was convinced that the advancement in human rights critically hinged upon peace and security. In this regard, the delegation stated that Ethiopia’s continued illegal occupation of Eritrea’s sovereign territory was an impediment to peace and security and, therefore, to the promotion of human rights. 293. Before the adoption of the outcome of the review, and in compliance with paragraph 32 of Council resolution 5/1, the President of the Council invited Eritrea to clarify the status of a number of recommendations for which the country indicated that it had not taken a position. The delegation stated that the recommendations made had many parts; for instance, one recommendation stated that a clear order should be given to the security forces in Eritrea not to arrest anybody, or to that effect. The country already had laws that regulated the behaviour of the security forces. It was therefore very difficult to say categorically that Eritrea had rejected or accepted it. The recommendations did not lend themselves to that kind of response; the delegation therefore chose to provide substantive responses rather than to accept or reject recommendations. The President then indicated that he would therefore take it that, since Eritrea could not yet support these recommendations, they had been noted. 121