A/HRC/8/36 Page 7 25. Luxembourg stated that the drastic increase in the price of food has seriously threatened the right to food of tens of millions of persons, and asked how the Government intends to react to this situation and what measures it intends to take to address it. . 26. Mali congratulated Ghana on being the first country to have submitted to the Intra-African Assessment Mechanism, which should be an inspiration for the Human Rights Council. Mali wished to receive more information on the LEAP programme. 27. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland stated that discrimination against women is demonstrated by the low participation in decision-making and governance, domestic violence, poor access to resources and harmful cultural practices. It recommended that Ghana take further steps to address discrimination against women and vulnerable groups, including children. It noted issues raised by the CHRAJ concerning cases of police brutality and mob justice, prison conditions and long imprisonment of remand prisoners. It affirmed that while there were efforts to improve police training and accountability, public confidence in the police has been affected. It warmly welcomed that Ghana has signed the OP-CAT and recommended that it ratify it as soon as possible. 28. The Democratic Republic of the Congo appreciated the considerable improvements and the work methods of police and the penitentiary administration. It encouraged Ghana to continue to combat domestic violence, which has been described as one of most widespread violations of human rights in Ghana. With regard to so-called traditional medicine, it asked for information on the results obtained at the therapeutic level as well as concerning the production of medicinal drugs. The Democratic Republic of the Congo requested information on who created witch camps, how they were organized, and if there are mechanisms for the care and treatment of persons who are victims of religious beliefs and sorcery. 29. Mexico associated itself to the acknowledgement concerning the development of institutions and standards, particularly measures concerning police services, human rights of persons with disabilities, rights of women and protection of refugees. Mexico recommended Ghana to continue to eradicate cultural practices that violated the rights of women and girls, and to ratify the Convention on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol thereto, as well as the Optional Protocol to CAT. It asked Ghana to provide more information on the implementation of the recommendations made by the National Reconciliation Commission. 30. Mexico recommended that Ghana adopt a legal moratorium on the use of death penalty. It also recommended Ghana to ratify the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. 31. In response to comments and questions put forward by various delegations, the representative of Ghana noted that the LEAP programme has been developed as a rights-based poverty reduction tool for the protection of the most vulnerable persons. The programme is a targeted one which will provide extremely poor households with a reliable and cost effective subsistence grant. It will assist the poorest 20 per cent of the extreme poor, and target orphans and vulnerable children, the aged 65 years and above, and persons with severe disabilities. A pilot programme will be implemented from 2008 until 2012 and will assist 164,370 extremely poor households. The food prices increase is gradually having an impact on the situation in the country and is expected to affect the most vulnerable areas, and the LEAP programme will be scaled up to assist 53,000 households in 66 districts as an emergency response package. Ghana did not agree that public confidence in the police has reduced. It referred to the freedom of expression, freedom of the media, and that there are 50 daily newspapers and over a hundred radio stations, while a few years ago there was only one State-owned radio station. The percentage of police to citizens has