A/HRC/16/3 violence, but noted efforts to prosecute such cases and thanked the Minister of Justice for her update on steps taken to improve court capacity. Australia was concerned about child trafficking and exploitation involving orphanages, but welcomed the new child protection regulations and encouraged Liberia to implement them. Australia was also concerned by ongoing reports of child labour. Australia made recommendations. 46. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland welcomed progress in the establishment of an Independent National Commission for Human Rights and requested information about the timeline for operationalisation. It expressed concern at reports of corruption in the judiciary. It expressed the hope that the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission would be acted upon. It also encouraged Liberia to engage with donors and others before the next election, and to extend a standing invitation to the special procedures. It made recommendations. 47. Italy commended Liberia for participating in the World Programme for Human Rights Education, but noted that less than one third of children were attending schools and that more than 50 per cent of the population remained illiterate. Italy expressed concern about the 2008 legislation regarding the death penalty. Italy noted that female genital mutilation was still being practiced and had not been criminalized. It asked what measures had been taken to improve access to justice for victims of sexual violence and to effectively protect them. Italy made recommendations. 48. The delegation reported that, during the civil conflict, victims of rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage and pregnancy had been ostracized by their communities and families, while perpetrators had gone unpunished. Fearing such stigmatization, victims had often chosen not to report crimes of sexual and gender-based violence committed against them. Victims of such violence remained reluctant to report the crimes and, when they did so, often failed to pursue prosecution. The investigation and prosecution of crimes of sexual and gender-based violence also suffered from the inadequacies of the justice and law enforcement systems. It was against that backdrop, Liberia suggested, that accomplishments should be viewed. The Sexual Offences Court, since its establishment in 2008, had significantly increased the prosecution of sexual offences cases: from February 2009 to October 2010, the court had indicted 27 persons and tried 10 cases, compared with the fewer than five sexual offences cases brought to trial before the establishment of the special court. Those figures showed achievements. The Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Crimes Unit, within its 18 months of operation, had increased threefold the number of sexual offences cases brought to trial. Additionally, Liberia had set up an endowment fund to provide support to survivors, had drafted a civil service sexual harassment policy, and had joined a United Nations joint programme that took a holistic approach to preventing and addressing issues related to sexual and gender-based violence. 49. To facilitate the implementation of the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Liberia had established a working group that was divided into eight thematic committees. The legal thematic committee had collaborated with the Law Reform Commission to conduct research on and compile current laws, including customary laws that directly or indirectly discriminated against women, and to determine the right course of action for incorporating the principle of equality between women and men into the Constitution. 50. Liberia had continued to take measures to eliminate the practice of female genital mutilation, while respecting the cultural rights of citizens to engage in non-harmful, humanrights-conscious traditional and cultural practices. Appreciating the need to address the underlying economic motivation behind female genital mutilation, Liberia had provided training courses on alternative income-generating skills for more than 750 practitioners of female genital mutilation. To date, as a result, 350 practitioners had ceased performing female genital mutilation and had publicly denounced the practice. Liberia had established 9