A/HRC/42/9 were women; at the time of speaking, the United Workers Party had fielded three female candidates for those elections. 29. The Sexual Offences Act had been amended in 2016 to, among other things, criminalize marital rape, ensure harsher sentences for perpetrators of sexual violence and provide legislative authority for the mandatory reporting of suspected abuse of minors. 30. While the laws in force permitted a child to be sentenced to life imprisonment, detention at the State’s pleasure or corporal punishment, there had been no such sentence imposed on a child in the past 20 years. However, Dominica remained committed to updating its legislation related to the rights of children, to reflect current-day realities. 31. While corporal punishment was still provided for in the Education Act of 1997, it should be used only as a last resort. Over the past decade, the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, through the implementation of the effective school/childfriendly school initiative, had been making efforts to offer alternative approaches to discipline, including through the school-wide use of positive behavioural practices. 32. The Government had been steadily increasing its support for early childhood development, in recognition of the importance of the foundation years for growth and development. Since Hurricane Maria, early childhood development facilities had been included in schools where major rehabilitation was being undertaken. 33. Moreover, several bills had been presented to the Cabinet for review and approval, namely, the status of children bill, the children (care and adoption) bill, the juvenile justice bill, the family court bill and the maintenance of children bill. It was expected that the bills would receive approval and be taken to Parliament later in 2019. 34. In addition, discussions were ongoing about the restructuring of the Social Welfare Division, the main child protection agency. A review, currently under way, of a national action plan on child sexual abuse needed to be completed before policymakers could submit the plan for approval. 35. Dominica had made significant progress on ensuring that its policies, programmes and activities relating to children were in keeping with the letter and spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and was committed to continue working towards that goal and to maintain the gains that had been realized. 36. Through technical assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), initial steps had been taken to put in place a comprehensive system to collect data on child abuse, and related training had been conducted. A data bank was being developed with the support of UN-Women. The exercise would be linked to the various agencies in the compilation of statistics on domestic violence, which would include child abuse. 37. For almost two decades, Dominica had provided a separate Juvenile Court presided over by child-friendly magistrates. 38. Children with disabilities were educated mainly in an inclusive setting. However, the Government provided support to private institutions that catered specifically to children with disabilities. An office had been established to coordinate work in special education, and children with disabilities were involved in sports and were regular participants at the Special Olympic World Games. 39. Dominica had enacted legislation aimed at preventing, combating and punishing trafficking. A number of offences relating to trafficking in persons and related matters, including forced labour, were provided for in the Transnational Organized Crime (Prevention and Control) Act of 2013. Offences relating to the smuggling of migrants were also provided for in that Act; offences relating to trafficking in persons were extraditable offences for the purposes of the Extradition Act. 40. Concerning discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, Dominica acknowledged that there had not been an amendment to the laws that affected members of that community. Over the past five years no cases of violence or death threats targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons had been reported 5