Mr Chairman,
Allow me to extend the gratitude of Sweden to His Excellency Gonzalo Fernandez, Minister for Foreign Affairs, for taking an active part in our dialogue. We appreciate the strong commitment of the government to handle the challenges Uruguay is facing within the area of Human Rights.
Sweden welcomes that the Constitution of Uruguay enshrines the principle of equality between men and women. We noted the concerns expressed by the CEDAW Committee in 2008 over several discriminatory legal provisions in matters relating to, for instance, family and marriage. We thank the Minister for having addressed this topic in his presentation this morning, and recommend to strengthen the efforts to ensure full equality between men and women and bring the legislation in line with the CEDAW recommendations, as well as the human rights obligations and other international standards.
We noted the concerns by the Committee on the Rights of the Child that sexual exploitation and the sale of children are growing problems in Uruguay, especially in tourist areas and along the borders. We welcome the National Plan of Action against Sexual Exploitation of children and the formulation of a National Strategy for the years 2010-2030. We would recommend to continue taking strong measures, with a view to fully combat sexual exploitation and sale of children.
In this endeavour, we welcome the information provided this morning that there is now a new bill being discussed and we hope it will bring the legislation into compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its’ Optional Protocol. In that context, we recommend to ensure that the law is strengthened to also tackle impunity for such crimes.
Thank you, Mr President . Allowed speaking time; 2 mins