A/HRC/41/34/Add.1 coordinating council. Concerns raised included the increasing number of persons with HIV/AIDS, the growing number of children placed in care institutions owing to poverty, violence against women and against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, early marriage, bride-kidnapping and limited progress towards the reconciliation of ethnic groups. 21. Kyrgyzstan accepted a number of recommendations made at the universal periodic review. Those relating to the right to health included improving access to adequate health care and treatment for HIV-positive mothers to prevent transmission from mother to child, and continuing the fight against domestic violence and violence against women, paying special attention to preventive and prophylactic measures (see A/HRC/29/4). The recommendation made by various States that Kyrgyzstan extend a standing invitation to all special procedures of the Human Rights Council was not accepted by the State. 22. The adoption of the Constitution in 2010 helped to strengthen human rights standards, although progress was restricted by the amendments approved in December 2016. The reference in article 6 to international human rights instruments taking precedence over other international instruments was removed, and article 16 was redrafted to suggest that fundamental rights and freedoms were part of the superior values of Kyrgyzstan, whereas previously they had been considered of superior value. In addition, the provision in article 36 allowing persons over the age of consent the right to marry and create a family was replaced with language suggesting that a family was created only upon the voluntary union of a man and a woman who had reached the age of consent and entered into marriage. This is a discriminatory and retrogressive provision that negatively affects the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. 23. Other human rights principles are still upheld in the amended Constitution, such as equality, including between women and men, and non-discrimination on various grounds (sex, race, language, disability, ethnic background, religion, age, political or other opinions, education, origin, property or other status, and other characteristics). The principle of the best interests of the child is upheld in the Constitution, including the protection of every child’s right to an adequate standard of living for his or her physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development. 24. The right to health, including provisions regarding its underlying determinants, is enshrined in the Constitution. Article 47 establishes everyone’s right to health protection and the responsibilities of the State both to develop the health-care sector and to provide for free medical services within the bounds of State guarantees established in the law. Article 22 includes provisions on informed consent, such as the prohibition of medical, biological or psychological experiments on persons without their expressed and verified voluntary consent. Article 9 guarantees minimum levels of health and labour protection for citizens in socially vulnerable situations, while article 48 states that everyone has the right to a healthy environment and to compensation for damage to health or property as a result of environmental management. 25. An extensive legislative national framework governs the national health-care system. The framework includes laws on public health, food safety and water safety, and a number of government decrees and orders by the Ministry of Health. The most important pieces of legislation governing the national health system are the law on the protection of the health of citizens (January 2005), the law on the organization of health care (August 2004) and the law on public health (July 2009). Additional laws relevant to the realization of the right to health include the laws on the reproductive rights of citizens; on measures for preventing harm to children’s health and physical, intellectual, mental, spiritual and moral development; on the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population; on the protection of citizens’ health from the harmful effects of tobacco; on labour protection; and on mental health.12 12 6 WHO Regional Office for Europe and Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan, Results of the selfassessment of essential public health operations in the Kyrgyz Republic: April–September 2016 (Bishkek, 2017), p. 1.