A/HRC/23/8 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. With respect to the accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (OP-CEDAW), this could not be accomplished before the removal of the reservations to article 29. 17. Concerning the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, the Head of Delegation pointed out that, concerning the latter, domestic law prohibited the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. As the Bahamas was not involved in any armed conflict, the issue of ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict would be dealt with at a later stage. 18. On administration of justice, the Head of Delegation noted that the Attorney General’s Office was implementing a number of initiatives to deal with the backlog of cases (particularly criminal). The most significant of these was the “Swift Justice” system, and its corollary, the integrated justice system, which provided an information system to manage serious cases (especially murder) from the investigative stage, and automation and connectivity of all the stakeholders in the criminal justice system (police, prosecutors, prison officials, courts, etc.). There were plans to create a Family Court to provide a suite of alternative dispute resolution support services, such as mediation and counseling and to harmonize more than twenty pieces of legislation. And, on treaty reporting, she stated national efforts and requested technical assistance could be maximized for timeliness and effective, synergistic implementation by United Nations clustering of relevant instruments. 19. The Head of Delegation referred to a programme called “Urban Renewal”, which was introduced to bring a social dimension to the administration of justice, and to address root causes. The main thrust of the programme was, therefore, to strengthen communities with social interventionist programmes administered by a cross-section of agencies, including the police, social service and health workers. 20. The Head of Delegation conveyed the current position of the Bahamas on the death penalty. She emphasized that death penalty had been on the statute books of the Bahamas since the inception of English common law in 1799. It had been mandatory for murder and treason until a seminal case in 2006, when the Privy Council had ruled that the relevant provisions of Bahamian law were to be construed as prescribing a discretionary, not a mandatory death sentence. In 2012, further judicial restrictions were imposed by the Privy Council ruling that the death penalty should only be imposed where the offence was deemed to be the “worst of the worst” or the “rarest of the rare”. The majority of the population, guided by strong Judeo-Christian principles, supported capital punishment. She noted that the international community was still very much divided on this issue. This issue would be before the Constitutional Reform Commission. Moreover, the last mandated execution had taken place 12 years prior, even in the absence of a formal moratorium. 21. On the issue of the legality of corporal punishment in specified circumstances, the Head of Delegation stated that it remained a practice under Bahamian law in two broad categories. The first was in respect of the legal right of parents or guardians, and the second, as punishment for criminal or prison disciplinary offences. 22. Notwithstanding the legal ability to employ corporal punishment in respect of minors, the Bahamas recognized the merit of behavioural modification mechanisms, and encouraged such disciplinary measures in lieu of physical discipline. The Head of Delegation conveyed their country’s desire to undertake a study on the effects of corporal punishment in the Bahamas. 5