A/HRC/10/32 page 20 a strike situation. Additionally, Congress is currently considering adopting legislative measures to ensure the right to water. The ratification process for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has begun, although its Optional Protocol has not yet been signed by the Government. 74. Several of the Millennium Development Goals indicators do not reflect sufficient progress. Despite the economic growth of recent years, poverty, for instance, measured in terms of income, has not substantially decreased. Moreover, fewer than 48 per cent of children have access to preschool education; teenage pregnancy continues to increase and now affects more than 20.5 per cent of women aged 15-19; and 16 per cent of Colombian households live in precarious or undignified conditions.36 J. Vulnerable groups 1. Human rights defenders and trade unionists 75. OHCHR Colombia recorded a significant number of attacks in 2008 against human rights defenders and trade unionists, principally in Antioquia, Arauca, Bogotá, Nariño, Putumayo and Valle del Cauca. These involved murder, as well as damage to property, break-ins, theft of information and threats. It is worrying to find that some senior government officials have not stopped publicly stigmatizing human rights defenders and trade unionists as sympathetic to guerrilla groups.37 76. Official figures from the Ministry of Social Protection recorded 23 murders of trade unionists during the first half of 2008, most of them in Antioquia and Cauca.38 A national union federation, the Confederation of Colombian Workers (CUT), however, reported a total of 41 persons murdered, from 24 unions, during the same period. 77. Although in many cases murders and threats against these vulnerable groups have been attributed to the illegal armed groups that have emerged since the paramilitary demobilization, as well as to members of FARC-EP and ELN, members of the security forces have also allegedly been involved. 78. In the current context of polarization and confrontation between government officials and members of the NGO community, threats and stigmatization directed at human rights defenders, opposition leaders and social activists have intensified.39 As mentioned above, some senior 36 Data provided by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Colombia. 37 OHCHR Colombia expressed great concern at this situation in several statements issued throughout the year. 38 39 Ministry for Social Protection, annual report to Congress 2007-2008. By way of illustration, it was made known in December 2008 that a year previously the Attorney-General’s Office had acceded to a police request to intercept the e-mail addresses of a number of social organizations and individuals, including that of a member of OHCHR