A/HRC/35/43 taken into account in the decisions reached by juvenile court judges as part of a process whose fundamental objective, in criminal cases, must be rehabilitation rather than punishment. The Independent Expert notes that the establishment of these facilities constitutes remarkable progress in the handling of cases of minors in conflict with the law, despite some shortcomings in the monitoring of such cases, including those of minors on remand. 61. The Independent Expert notes that the training for professionals who deal with minors in conflict with the law was updated in 2016 and new working methods were adopted by all those already working in the field. He welcomes the progress made in the approach to justice for minors in conflict with the law and encourages the Ivorian authorities to continue to fine-tune their training programmes. He recommends that the judicial protection services for children and young people should gradually be rolled out to all jurisdictions in Côte d’Ivoire. Lastly, the Independent Expert notes that, in 2016, a policy for the legal protection of children was finalized, which, once adopted, should pave the way for innovations such as the promotion of alternative measures to deprivation of liberty and the prioritization of educational measures. 62. The situation of juveniles in conflict with the law is also central to the interests of the National Human Rights Commission of Côte d’Ivoire. The Commission has organized awareness-raising workshops on children’s rights and encouraged the activities of human rights associations. It organizes monthly visits to the Juvenile Observation Centre and the prisons in Dabou, Aboisso and Agboville. The Commission has also carried out a study of the Observation Centre, based on a sample group of 52 minors in conflict with the law, to determine their profile and assess the conditions of their detention. It maintains regular contact with the director of the Observation Centre in order to review the cases of minors and make recommendations on their progress. The Commission has set up a working group to examine cases of minors, which remains in constant contact with bodies working in the field of children’s rights. The Independent Expert welcomes the fact that the Commission favours education rather than punishment with regard to children in conflict with the law. VII. Constitutional and legislative reforms 63. On 30 October 2016, the country adopted a new Constitution inaugurating the Third Republic. The Constitution was approved by referendum, with 93.42 per cent of votes in favour and a participation rate of 42.42 per cent of the 6.3 million people eligible to vote. The most significant developments were the repeal of article 35 of the previous Constitution and the establishment of the Senate and the post of Vice-President. Article 35 of the Constitution of 2000 required that both parents of a presidential candidate should be Ivorian. Since September 2002, that provision had provoked a series of violent political crises that had divided the country into two rival areas. The new Constitution has removed the potentially harmful effects of the provision and created the post of Vice-President, ensuring the continuity and stability of the State if the post of Head of State is vacant. 64. The new Constitution has also expanded the list of human rights and public freedoms: it reaffirms the abolition of the death penalty (art. 3); adopts the principle of equality before the law and explicitly prohibits discrimination (art. 4); prohibits torture and humiliating, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including violence against women, notably female genital mutilation (art. 5); prohibits human trafficking and child labour (arts. 5 and 16); strengthens the rights of persons with disabilities (arts. 32 and 33); introduces guarantees of a fair trial (arts. 6 and 7); guarantees the right to access to information, the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedom of conscience (arts. 18 and 19); establishes the right to a healthy environment, prohibits the illegal storage or dumping of toxic waste on national territory and removes the statute of limitations for the latter practice (art. 27); and recognizes the important role of civil society as part of the expression of democracy (art. 26). Moreover, article 113 of the new Constitution states that “legally incorporated human rights institutions may also refer laws relating to public freedoms to the Constitutional Council before their promulgation”. These are very commendable regulatory developments that should be reflected in the activities of the country’s authorities and institutions. However, the Independent Expert notes with regret that the authorities have not GE.17-08076 13