A/HRC/43/9 9. In San Marino, as elsewhere, the crises affecting several economies entailed the risk that selfishness, indifference and fear of the other would prevail. However, civil society was committed to defending human rights, especially with regard to protecting the most vulnerable groups in society. In addition to a constellation of non-profit associations and organizations, many significant initiatives had taken place in recent times in the country. 10. On 13 May 2018, the population had joined together to march against hatred and intolerance. Moreover, around the same date, the Heads of State, the Captains Regent, had called for the involvement of schools of all levels to carry out initiatives as part of the Council of Europe No Hate Speech campaign, which the Government had backed without hesitation. 11. Volunteers with San Marino associations had put in place numerous initiatives in the field of the rights of persons with disabilities. In addition to encouraging several legislative interventions during the previous legislature, they had promoted various campaigns with the aim of raising public awareness of the benefits of a society that was more inclusive and more attentive to disability. 12. One successful initiative taken in 2019 had been a campaign promoted by the Attiva-Mente Association with the aim of raising funds to distribute devices for autonomy, such as wheelchairs, to those most in need. Another had been the “Precious Towers” theatre performance, in which the actors had been people with various kinds and degrees of disabilities, with the help of a national organization representing persons with disabilities. 13. The introduction of registered civil partnerships had originated in a popular initiative, testifying to the involvement of civil society in the democratic life of the country. Indeed, the law regulating civil registered partnerships recognized the same dignity, rights and safeguards for civilly registered partners, both homosexual and heterosexual couples, as those in place for married couples. 14. The country had given the highest priority in its history to the defence of human rights and had constantly used all its resources to guarantee the best international standards, bearing in mind that the small size of the State was not a justification for any shortcomings. 15. The country was aware of its delays in submitting several reports to the treaty bodies. Its national report highlighted the difficulties that had been encountered in implementing some of the recommendations from the second cycle of the universal periodic review. 16. While sometimes resulting from specific events and especially from the limited resources related to the State’s small size, such negative results remained unjustifiable for a country like San Marino, which had been able to demonstrate, throughout its history, that it could play a virtuous role on the international scene in the defence and promotion of human rights. 17. Indeed, San Marino had abolished the death penalty for the first time in 1848 and had abolished it once and for all in 1865, thus becoming the first country in Europe and the second in the world to take that step. 18. In line with that decision, San Marino had ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, and Protocol No. 6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the Abolition of the Death Penalty. The country had consistently co-sponsored the General Assembly resolutions on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Moreover, in September 2019, the Government had joined the Global Alliance to end trade in goods used for capital punishment and torture. 19. San Marino had also been the first European State to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It continued to pay great attention to the work of the International Criminal Court, although it did not have a diplomatic representation in The Hague. 20. One of the areas in which San Marino excelled was its health system, which had been inaugurated as a social security system in 1955. Since then, it had remained completely public and free for all citizens, from birth to death. It included health services 3