A/HRC/30/33 assistance to the Ministry. Improved coordination of the various interventions by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights should produce a more positive outcome to this situation. B. 1. Strengthening the national system for protection of human rights and collaboration with the international human rights mechanisms Ratification of international and regional conventions 32. As a result of the advocacy of international actors during the period in question, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has acceded to new international and regional human rights instruments:  The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples ’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (in June 2008), the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (in June 2008) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (in February 2014);  The Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (in September 2010);  An act authorizing the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was voted on in 2013 and the ratification process is currently under way. 33. To date, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has still not become a party to the following instruments: 2.  The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families;  The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance;  The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty;  The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;  The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;  The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure. Submission of reports to the human rights treaty bodies and the universal periodic review and collaboration with the special procedures of the United Nations 34. In the report on her mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (A/HRC/13/22/Add.2) in 2009, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders recommended that the drafting methodology of the Interministerial Technical Committee on the drafting and follow-up to initial and periodic human rights reports should be improved to enable it to meet reporting obligations in a timely manner. 35. Between 2011 and 2012, the combined periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Human Rights Committee were submitted with assistance received by the Interministerial Technical Committee from UNJHR O, UNPD and UNICEF. GE.15-14279 11/19