A/HRC/12/50 1. Views expressed by the State under review on the recommendations and/or conclusions as well as on its voluntary commitments and on the outcome 363. The Deputy Minister for Justice of Afghanistan, Dr. Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, noted that the universal periodic review had been a productive experience for Afghanistan. It supported most of the recommendations made during the interactive dialogue, and various ministries and institutions had already taken a number of initiatives, which was indicative of the firm political will of the Government to consolidate and improve human rights in the country. Afghanistan had also agreed to consider further a number of other recommendations. Its responses, after consulting with relevant ministries and departments, are contained in the addendum to the report of the Working Group. 364. Measures taken by Afghanistan since May 2009 included Parliament’s current review of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the ratification of ILO Conventions Nos. 144 and 182, and the Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions; and the completion of the initial report under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Serious attention to the report’s findings and recommendations would facilitate securing better conditions for children’s rights in Afghanistan. Work had begun in early August 2009 to prepare the initial report for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women for planned completion by July 2010. The report would also provide a better understanding of the condition of women and their needs in Afghanistan and help in better addressing the issue of women’s rights in the country. 365. Afghanistan needed to take steps for the review and revision of 700 laws currently in force to ensure that they are in keeping with the Constitution and international agreements to which it is a signatory. 366. Since May 2009, Afghanistan had passed a number of laws, including a law on the elimination of violence against women, which makes violence a crime, whether committed at home or elsewhere, prescribes sentences for its perpetrators and is in line with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Shia personal status law, which was reviewed in the light of the Constitution and adjusted in accordance with Afghanistan’s obligations towards international human rights conventions; a new media law, which was published in the official gazette and guaranteed freedom of speech and publication; the recent implementation of a new police law, incorporating all the principles of human rights in police activities; a law on the establishment of a commission to supervise the implementation of the Constitution, which was published in the official gazette; and finalization of a draft of the new code of criminal procedure, encompassing the principle of fair trial and rectifying the loopholes and shortcomings existing in the interim code of criminal procedure to standards and rules. 367. In addition, Afghanistan had carried out a number of institutional reform programmes, including the following: (a) resources had been raised for the establishment of a human rights unit in the Ministry of Justice, with the assistance of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan; (b) implementation of merit-based prison reform aimed at improving the salaries of personnel to a level that meets the essential needs of staff and reduces corruption, resulting in better performance, especially in the implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners; (c) the launch of the joint Peace through Justice Programme aimed at promoting human rights awareness activities and training for communities and local justice officials at the district level throughout Afghanistan; (d) the regular holding of sessions of the Justice Sector Coordination Commission in the Supreme Court, for coordinating human rights activities; (e) the establishment of the first core working group to set up a task force on formal justice relations, with an informal justice/traditional dispute resolution mechanism; a template for national policy had been formulated, the ultimate aim of which was to prevent the abuse of human rights values by informal justice, especially against women; (f) the setting up of a 117