A/HRC/28/50 13. To contain the spread of the Ebola virus, the Government has taken steps to restrict population movement and closed a number of local markets. Following the state of emergency declared by the Government, in September 2014 the local authorities in Guéckédou, Guinée Forestière, decided to close the weekly markets held in six subprefectures bordering Sierra Leone and Liberia. 1 Although justified in the context of the epidemic, these measures have had a considerable impact on the right to food, with quarantined persons particularly badly affected as they do not receive adequate food aid from the authorities. The weekly market closures had been lifted at the time of finalizing this report. 14. According to a statement issued on 11 November 2014 by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, more than a million people in the countries hit hardest by the Ebola crisis were facing the prospect of starvation because of the toll the epidemic had taken on food production.2 4. Right to work 15. The right to work is guaranteed under article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 6 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 20 of the Guinean Constitution. 16. At the same time as the new civilian authorities came into power, major mining group investments were being withdrawn or put on hold as a result of the Ebola crisis. Thousands of workers lost their jobs, particularly in the town of Fria where the closure of the aluminium smelter has pushed hundreds of employees into poverty and insecurity. 17. Following the Ebola outbreak, numerous multinational organizations evacuated their employees and wound down their business activities in the country. For example, 400 of the 500 Rio Tinto personnel based in Beyla have been transferred to other areas of the country or abroad; the Societé des mines de fer de Guinée (SMFG) evacuated all of its international employees and placed at least 133 of its Guinea nationals on leave. At the time of drafting this report, business activities on the whole remained greatly reduced. 18. The Ebola outbreak has had a significant effect on women’s right to work, with those in the agricultural sector particularly badly affected as a result of the disruption to production structures as well as the market and border closures. In this regard, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women recommended that Guinea adopt specific measures to promote alternative income-generating opportunities for women active in the agricultural sector and to ensure food security (CEDAW/C/GIN/CO/7-8, para. 45). B. Civil and political rights 1. Right to life 19. In the previous report (A/HRC/25/44 and Corr.1, para. 57), The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recommended that the Government should continue to reform the security sector and strengthen the resources of the security forces in order to ensure greater respect for the international principles applicable to the maintenance and restoration of law and order. The High Commissioner also recommended that the 1 2 6 This Declaration was made by the President of the Republic of Guinea on 13 August 2014. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, press release dated 11 November 2014, www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15276&LangID=E. GE.15-03278