A/HRC/18/15 27. Nicaragua commended the delegation for progress made in the areas of education, health, housing and work. It also welcomed the actions taken to build an egalitarian society, in which there was an awareness that discrimination and exclusion needed to be eradicated from the society and in which women played an important role. Nicaragua also referred to efforts needed to address poverty. Nicaragua made a recommendation. 28. France noted that the death penalty was still enshrined in the legislation, even though there had been no execution since 1997. It also noted that violence against women remained an issue of concern. It inquired about measures envisaged to prevent sexual exploitation of children and to assist and reintegrate child victims of such exploitation in accordance with recommendations made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. It also inquired whether the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child calling for a study on the scope of the phenomenon of street children had been implemented. It noted that section 146 of the Penal Code criminalized sexual relations between consenting adults of the same sex. It made recommendations. 29. In response to comments and additional questions, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines indicated that its national legislation included a variety of provisions that dealt with sexual activity between consenting adults. Existing legislation against incest, prostitution, public indecency, same-sex acts and buggery all enjoyed wide popular support in the State and there was no legislative support for repealing any of these provisions. To the extent that recommendations were specifically targeted to consensual sex between members of the same sex, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines noted that its legislation on buggery was inherited from the United Kingdom, whose Buggery Act and Offences against the Person Act both pre-dated the local legislation. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines noted the hundreds of years that it took for the United Kingdom to repeal similar legislation, and the harsh nature of the sentences imposed under British law, and compared them to the relatively short period of time that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines had been an independent State, and the less punitive sanctions involved. In the context of the moral, societal and cultural make-up of the State, there was currently no desire to revisit that legislation. 30. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was concerned with all instances of violence against women and domestic violence. Work was being done to strengthen the existing Domestic Violence Act. Additionally, the Police Service had been receiving special training to help officers to be more sensitive in dealing with issues of domestic violence. Similarly, the police had been receiving additional training to show greater sensitivity to prevent instances of excessive force. 31. The delegation recognized the existence of corporal punishment of juveniles although the legislation constrained the instances in which corporal punishment could be used in juveniles. There were very strict child abuse laws and no one could recall the last time that corporal punishment had actually been carried out as part of a criminal sentence. 32. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines cited its unsuccessful attempt to revise its Constitution via a referendum as an example of the seriousness with which it approached changes in legislation that affected the rights of citizens. That process had involved years of consultation with civil society, radio and television programmes, and meetings with citizens both locally and in the diaspora. 33. Regarding prison overcrowding, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines indicated that a new correctional facility had been constructed, and that transfers of prisoners would commence in June 2011. The national rate of incarceration was not unduly high. Using a measure of prisoners per 100,000 persons was statistically misleading in a country whose population was just slightly over 100,000. Also, consideration should be paid not only to the rate of incarceration but to the length of sentences imposed. 7