A/HRC/41/8/Add.1 21. With reference to overcrowding in the juvenile detention system, it must be emphasized that Uruguay overcame overcrowding in 2016. 22. The Childhood and Adolescence Code incorporates articles 37 (b) and 40 (4) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This means young people are deprived of their liberty only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest possible time. In addition, in 2018, a new model of non-custodial measures went into operation, thus giving effect to each of the measures laid down in the aforementioned Code. 23. Action protocols have been updated. Zero tolerance for any form of physical or emotional abuse is a principle governing management and the new institutional approach. Independent complaint mechanisms also exist for young people in detention or subject to non-custodial measures. 24. Education is guaranteed for all young people in detention through access to primary and secondary schooling and vocational training. 118.52, 118.53, 118.54, 118.55 25. Uruguay will continue to strengthen the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture which operates under the auspices of the National Human Rights Institution and will pursue the institutional strengthening of the work of the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner, the independent parliamentary body overseeing the prison system. 118.56 26. With reference to the recommendation to qualify torture as a separate offence by March 2020, Uruguay notes that this presupposes a consensus among politicians, scholars and judicial officials which would be impossible to achieve within this time frame 27. However, it must be stressed that, although Uruguay has not qualified torture as a separate offence in the Criminal Code, using the definition contained in the United Nations Convention against Torture, the crime of torture was incorporated into national legislation through the approval of Act No. 18.026 on cooperation with the International Court of Justice to combat genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. 118.58, 118.59, 118.60, 118.61, 118.62, 118.63, 118.64, 118.65 28. Being implemented. 118.70, 118.71, 118.72, 118.73, 118.74, 118.75, 118.76, 118.77, 118.78, 118.79, 118.80, 118.81, 118.82 29. Being implemented. 30. The National Council to Prevent and Combat Trafficking in and Exploitation of Persons has been set up to guide and coordinate policies on human trafficking, alongside the inter-agency system for responding to human trafficking and exploitation. 118.83 31. Implemented. 32. Uruguay fully agrees that the family, whatever its make-up, is of significance when seeking to ensure the well-being of all its members. However, it must be made clear that, in accordance with international law, it is human beings, the family members, who hold rights. The family as a whole, as a group, is not a subject of rights. Viewing the family from a multidimensional perspective means that the State supports all families, irrespective of their composition, including families formed by persons of the same sex, and that the State must formulate public policies consonant with existing family arrangements. 118.84, 118.85, 118.86 33. 4 Being implemented. GE.19-07103

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