A/HRC/12/9 Page 21 96. The following recommendations will be examined by Afghanistan which will provide responses in due time. The response of Afghanistan to these recommendations will be included in the outcome report to be adopted by the Human Rights Council at its twelfth session: 1. Sign (France) and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (France, Argentina, Czech Republic) and establish its national preventive mechanism accordingly (Czech Republic); 2. Ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and accept the competence of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (Argentina); sign and ratify all the Optional Protocols to United Nations international covenants and conventions to guarantee the effective implementation of the rights protected in the agreements (Spain); 3. Amend the Shia Personal Status Law consistent with its international human rights obligations to ensure equal respect for the human rights of all Afghans, including women (Canada); 4. Review and amend the various penal laws that prevent journalists from carrying out their essential mission in full security and independence (Belgium); 1 5. Amend any articles of the Personal Status Law that breach Afghanistan’s international obligations or its Constitutional protection of the equal rights of men and women (New Zealand); 6. Involve the Ministry for Women’s Rights and women’s rights organizations in the legislative process (Netherlands); 7. Take timely and efficient measures to ensure that the national legal framework properly incorporates international standards and conventions, ratified by Afghanistan, pertaining to women’s rights, for example CEDAW (Denmark); 2 8. Take steps to ensure an equitable and truly representative appointment of members of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and to protect the Commission from undue political interference (Finland); 9. Give more visibility to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and increase its human and technical resources to carry out its work effectively (Spain); 10. Strengthen its support to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the newly established Human Rights Unit within the Ministry of Justice, especially in the field of mapping past human rights abuses (Czech Republic);