A/HRC/19/16 and 13 female Judges of the High Court. Uganda had a woman at the rank of Brigadier in the army. 9. Article 78 of the Constitution of Uganda stipulated that at least one woman from each district must be elected to Parliament. Women had also been encouraged to run for other Parliamentary seats against men. 10. The Children Act contained the broad spectrum of rights for children. It established the National Council for Children to advise Government and promote policy and programmes regarding the development and protection of children in Uganda. Uganda offered free universal primary education and universal secondary education. As a result, the enrolment of school-going children in Uganda had risen from 5,303,564 in 1997, when universal primary education had come into effect, to 8,374,587 in 2010. The Government had a policy of affirmative action in favour of the girl child. 11. To ensure the registration of all children at birth, the Government had an automated system that registered all births at the community level. 12. Uganda was a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and had enacted the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2006. The Act promoted affirmative action for persons with disabilities including in the areas of education, voting rights and the right to work. Persons with disabilities were represented in both Parliament and Local Councils. 13. The delegation stated that the right to life was guaranteed by article 22 of the Constitution, which stipulated that no person shall be deprived of the right to life except in execution of a sentence passed by a competent Court in a fair trial. The right was also extended to the unborn child. The retention of the death penalty for capital offences was the result of the recommendation of the Constitutional Review Commission, which had found that the majority of Ugandans supported the use of the death penalty for capital offences. However, the death penalty as a punishment had been responsibly invoked. The last execution had been carried out in 1999. A person might receive a reprieve through the prerogative of mercy. A body of case law had also developed that clarified that the death penalty was no longer mandatory even for capital offences, but that it was discretionary and that the decision rested entirely in the hands of the presiding judge. 14. Freedom of assembly was a constitutional right enshrined in article 29 of the Constitution, which must be enjoyed along with the constitutional duty of non-interference with the rights of others, as provided by article 43. 15. Article 29, paragraph 1 (e), of the Constitution, guaranteed the right to freedom of association, including the freedom to form and join associations or unions. In the case of political parties, those provisions had been operationalized through the Political Parties and Organisations Act 2005. The Act provided for Government to contribute funds or other public resources towards activities of political parties and organizations represented in Parliament. 16. In a 2005 referendum on the political system, Ugandans had voted in favour of lifting the ban on political parties; the ban was subsequently lifted through a Constitutional amendment. 17. Article 29, paragraph 1 (a), of the Constitution guaranteed the freedom of speech and expression. The Press and Journalist Act ensured press freedom, established an institute of journalists and also provided for a council to regulate the mass media. The Courts had pronounced themselves on the law of sedition as being inconsistent with the Constitution and had recommended that it be removed from the Penal Code. 4