A/HRC/41/33/Add.1 struggle with crime and violence and has one of the highest rates of murders in the world, 4 including an alarming rate of femicide. Furthermore, Honduras suffers from acute environmental vulnerability, and is prone to hurricanes, floods and droughts, worsened by the State’s inadequate responses to climate change. Since the coup in 2009, the country has been facing a governance crisis with fragile institutions. Widespread structural impunity, corruption and the militarization of national security also affect prospects for ensuring fully fledged democratic governance and sustainable development. Moreover, some aspects of development policies, which include the granting of concessions to extractive industries and energy companies, pose a serious risk to the livelihood and culture of indigenous, Garífuna and rural populations and a threat to the environment. Increased privatization of public services has also amplified the vulnerability of the most disadvantaged groups of the population, such as women living in poverty. 5. The country is still marked by the 2017 post-electoral polarization and social distrust. The Working Group carried out this visit at a moment of severe migration crisis, 5 in which, according to information received from the Government, more than 7,000 people (among them approximately 1,500 women and girls) had left the country, fleeing widespread violence, poverty and a lack of economic opportunities. The Working Group hopes that the Government will take measures to support and protect returnees and to address the root causes of migration. It also hopes that government security policies shift the focus from militarization to human security. II. Legal, institutional and policy framework for women’s equality and human rights 6. The Working Group notes the significant efforts by Honduras to strengthen its legal, institutional and policy framework for the promotion and protection of women’s human rights and also notes remaining gaps where further steps could be taken. A. Legal framework 1. Ratification of international instruments and cooperation with human rights mechanisms 7. The Working Group welcomes the ratification by the State of all core human rights instruments and its strong commitment to cooperate with United Nations human rights mechanisms, as shown by its engagement with the treaty bodies and the universal periodic review and its standing invitation to the special procedures of the Human Rights Council. Honduras ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1983, with no reservations. However, the Working Group regrets that the Government has so far failed to ratify the Optional Protocol to that Convention. The Working Group also regrets that the Government has not ratified relevant conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), including the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189). 2. Main achievements in promoting women’s rights and gender equality in the law 8. The Working Group commends the efforts by Honduras to strengthen its legal framework for the promotion and protection of women’s human rights and gender equality. The prohibition of discrimination including on the basis of sex is enshrined in the Honduran Constitution, article 60 of which states that all Hondurans are equal before the law, and that 4 5 See www.worldbank.org/en/country/honduras/overview. In a preliminary report detailing its prevention and protection action in this migration crisis (starting on 12 October), the Office of the National Commissioner for Human Rights stressed that the root causes of this forced migration were poverty, unemployment, inflation, increased costs of public services and their lack of quality and accessibility, as well as insecurity stemming from violence, in particular from gangs and organized crime. 3