World Health Organization many improvements had been made, including a draft new programme to reform maternal health care. In 2012 a United Nations Children’s Fund-backed study was completed that highlighted key areas and vulnerable groups so the Government could ensure that the population received adequate healthcare.

Reproductive healthcare was both centrally and regionally available, as there were seven regional centres which operated with the support of the United Nations Population Fund across the country. Those health centres serviced not just women but also men, and provided family planning. They also monitored contraceptive use. Women did mostly use only uterine and hormonal contraception, but since 2005 there had been a three per cent increase in the use of more modern forms of contraception. That had also led to a dramaticdecrease in the number of abortions.

The Government was conducting a programme to end tuberculosis by 2015, and together with the Global Fund to end tuberculosis and AIDS was taking measures in accordance with international standards and a 2012 decree had been issued along those lines. A lot of work in the field was conducted within the prison system. A delegate confirmed that the Government was working to raise awareness about the new Family Code – as they did with every new law – particularly through the mass media and public events. The new code set out the marriageable age as 18 years old, the delegate also confirmed.

It was true that there was polygamy in rural areas, the Head of the Delegation said, but as it was now criminalized