A/HRC/44/52/Add.2 Legislative framework and policies on combating and preventing violence against women 17. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the ongoing legal reforms undertaken by the Government over recent years with the aim of harmonizing its national legal system with the new constitutional provisions and its international commitments to human rights, and she encourages the Government to continue with the reform process. Although this progress is indeed important, considerable implementation gaps with respect to new laws relating to the rights of women and girls, ranging from the Comprehensive Organic Law to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women to the Comprehensive Criminal Code and the Health Code, continue to pose significant challenges, particularly at the local level and in remote areas. (a) Comprehensive Criminal Code 18. The Comprehensive Criminal Code (2014) criminalizes physical, psychological and sexual violence (arts. 156–158), femicide (art. 141) and discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation and other grounds (art. 176). While many of its provisions are progressive, it has yet to be fully harmonized with the Comprehensive Organic Law to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women and with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. 19. The Criminal Code is also not in line with international standards on access to safe abortion as it criminalizes women and girls who consent to having an abortion or cause themselves to abort, even in cases of rape. Under current legislation, women and girls who undergo abortions are penalized with prison terms ranging from six months to two years. During her visit, the Special Rapporteur received disturbing information that, between 2014 and 2018, 134 persons faced criminal proceedings due to allegations of voluntary termination of pregnancy, while 286 complaints were filed for seeking an abortion between 2014 and June 2019.4 The Special Rapporteur also received information suggesting that there may be as many as 250 women in prison or facing criminal charges. She would welcome clarity on these figures from the Government. 20. Under the Criminal Code, abortion is legal only when a pregnant woman’s life or health is in danger, or when a woman with a psychosocial disability is pregnant as a result of rape. The restrictive norms within the criminal justice system and prohibition of therapeutic abortion in cases of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest and for non-viable pregnancies, as well as the overly restrictive interpretations that do not take account of severe fetal abnormalities and extrauterine pregnancies, place the health and other human rights of women and girls at extreme risk. 21. Such restrictive criminal law provisions are contrary to the recommendations that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women made to Ecuador in this regard (CEDAW/C/ECU/CO/8-9, para. 33). Moreover, in its general recommendation No. 24 (1999) on women and health, the Committee explained that it is discriminatory for a State party to refuse to provide legally for the performance of certain reproductive health services for women (para. 11). It indicated that when possible, legislation criminalizing abortion should be amended, in order to withdraw punitive measures imposed on women who undergo abortion (para. 31 (c)). 22. Article 16 (e) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women explicitly states that men and women shall have the same rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights. 23. International human rights bodies have upheld the view that forcing a woman to carry to term a pregnancy resulting from rape has severe mental health consequences and constitutes a violation of the right to health, both physical and mental. This right is protected under several human rights treaties, such as article 12 of the Convention on the 4 Wambra, “El rostro de las mujeres criminalizadas por abortar: empobrezidas y jóvenes”. Available at https://wambra.ec/mujeres-criminalizadas-aborto/#. 5