A/HRC/39/5 in the rate of maternal mortality. It urged Cabo Verde to continue its efforts in that area to improve access to health-care services and medicine. 35. Burundi praised the concrete actions Cabo Verde had taken to better promote and protect the rights of children, including the project on birth registration and the creation of a national committee to combat sexual violence and the exploitation of children and young people. It welcomed the measures it had taken to improve the rights of the elderly and persons with disabilities. It commended the policies on gender equality. 36. Canada lauded the efforts Cabo Verde had made to strengthen human rights, in particular with regard to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community, as one of the first African members of the Coalition for Equal Rights. It noted that, despite the lowest rate of early marriage in the region, improvements were still needed in that field, as the rate had remained unchanged since 2002. 37. Chile praised Cabo Verde on its ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and urged it to establish a national preventive mechanism against torture. It stressed that the implementation by Cabo Verde of the Second National Human Rights Plan would promote the mainstreaming of human rights in all its public policies, with a view to fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals. Chile expressed concern over the structural inequalities between men and women and the poverty affecting vulnerable groups. 38. China welcomed the promotion by Cabo Verde of social and economic rights and its poverty-reduction strategy. It praised it for its fight against human trafficking. It welcomed its social security coverage through its various national strategic plans to ensure its population enjoyed the rights to education, culture, health, employment and housing. 39. The Congo praised Cabo Verde for the strengthening of its legal framework in accordance with the recommendations that had been made in the second review cycle. It commended it for the establishment of the National Strategic Plan for Elderly Care. It congratulated Cabo Verde for the standing invitation it had extended to the special procedure mandate holders. 40. Côte d’Ivoire noted with appreciation the establishment by Cabo Verde of its National Plan to Combat Violence against Women (2014–2018) and the creation in 2014 of support centres for victims of gender-based violence. It also lauded the measures it had taken in the field of employment and encouraged it to integrate fully the principle of equal income for all. 41. Cuba praised Cabo Verde for the important measures it had taken in providing access to high-quality health care, for the improvements it had made in sanitary care and for having established the National Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (2018–2021), which had ensured Cabo Verde had the mechanisms necessary to combat that scourge. 42. The Democratic Republic of the Congo welcomed the adoption by Cabo Verde of a range of legislative texts to promote human rights, including the revision of the Penal Code in order to harmonize it with the Rome Statute. 43. Denmark expressed concern over the marginalized status of the indigenous population and the discrimination and exploitative labour conditions they faced. It highlighted the situation of persons with disabilities and the need to promote, protect and ensure their full enjoyment of human rights. 44. Djibouti acknowledged measures Cabo Verde had taken to implement the recommendations it had accepted during the previous universal periodic review, including the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. It congratulated Cabo Verde on the progress it had made in revising national legislation with a view to promoting and protecting human rights, particularly the revision of the Penal Code and the enactment of the Code on Children’s Rights. 45. Egypt commended Cabo Verde on its adoption of the 2017 Second National Human Rights and Citizenship Plan and the National Gender Equality Plan, on its efforts to combat impunity and the abuse of power and on developments in the health, education and housing 5