A/HRC/4/3 page 23 80. The independent expert is of the view that, in order to ensure a more reliable statistical approach, the effort to standardize data collection (standard registration forms) should be continued (improved definitions) and extended to the relevant institutions, including the police and justice services. 81. It should be emphasized that the above statistical estimates are only a partial reflection of reality. The three main reasons for this are: (a) victims’ reluctance to speak out for fear of reprisals, particularly in cases of gang rape; (b) a sense of shame that is hard to overcome; (c) fear (particularly among teenage girls and young women) of the adverse consequences of any publicity, and the fear of rejection by young people, especially in the cases of gang rape. To this can be added the all too frequent passivity of the police, who are not sufficiently sensitive to the seriousness of such incidents, while the victims’ safety is endangered by the aggressors’ vindictiveness. The independent expert recalls the example of Gonaïves: despite reported rapes, none of the perpetrators was ever arrested in that town. 82. It should be remembered that, faced with this situation, the Transitional Government had adopted a national plan of action on violence against women, on which there appears to be sufficient consensus in order to mobilize the energy needed to put it into effect. B. Reforms concerning the status of women 83. Important measures adopted on a provisional basis by decree of the Transitional Government should be “legalized” forthwith. In any event, that is what the independent expert strongly urges in order to prevent the constitutionality of these decrees - which represent a major advance for which the Transitional Government deserves credit - from being contested in the Court of Cassation. The decrees must therefore be submitted to Parliament in order to acquire the force of law. They are as follows: − The decree-law amending the Criminal Code, changing the classification of rape from indecent assault to that of a serious crime carrying severe penalties ranging from 10 years’ to life imprisonment; − The decree providing that a wife’s adultery is no longer an extenuating circumstance when she and/or her partner is murdered by her jealous husband; − More generally, the decree repealing the articles of the Criminal Code concerning adultery. 84. On 4 September 2006, the Ministry for the Status of Women and Women’s Rights submitted to the Government three preliminary bills designed to improve the status of women in the following areas: partial decriminalization of abortion (see para. 86 below) on medical grounds, and in cases of rape and incest; admissibility of paternity proceedings; and regulation of the status of concubines (plaçage) and domestic work. 85. In addition to these reforms, the independent expert once again draws the authorities’ attention to the plight of women who become pregnant as a result of rape and, beyond that, to the harmful consequences, in terms of public health, of the tragedy that underlies clandestine abortions (E/CN.4/2006/115, paras. 17-22).