CAT/C/CMR/CO/4 The Committee recommends that the State party pass legislation to prohibit female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices, in particular breast ironing, no matter what the circumstances, and to ensure its effective enforcement. It also urges the State party to devise programmes to offer alternative sources of income to those who earn their living by performing female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices. It should also step up efforts, through information programmes, to raise awareness and educate both women and men regarding the pressing need to put an end to the practices of female genital mutilation and breast ironing. Violence against women 30. The Committee is concerned about the high rate of violence against women and girls, especially the widespread domestic violence that continues to go unpunished. In addition, it reiterates its previous recommendation, in which it encouraged the State party to amend its legislation to end the exemption from punishment of rapists who marry their victims, where the victims were minors when the crime was committed (CAT/C/CR/31/6, para. 11 (d)) (arts. 1, 2, 10 and 16). The Committee recommends that the State party raise public awareness, through information and education programmes, of the fact that all forms of violence against women and girls constitute a violation of the Convention. The Committee urges the State party to ensure that violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, rape (even marital rape), and all forms of sexual abuse, is made a criminal offence, that perpetrators are prosecuted and punished and that their victims are rehabilitated, and that female victims of violence may seek immediate redress, protection and compensation. In addition, the Committee urges the State party to remove any impediments to access to justice by women and girls and recommends that legal assistance be made available to victims of violence. Moreover, the Committee reiterates its previous recommendation on the amendment of legislation that exempts from punishment rapists who marry their victims. Collection of statistical data 31. The Committee notes that it did receive some statistical data but regrets the lack of detailed disaggregated data on complaints, investigations, prosecutions and convictions in cases of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment attributed to members of the security forces, as well as on trafficking in persons, domestic violence and sexual violence (arts. 1, 2, 12, 13, 14 and 16). The State party should establish an effective system for collecting statistics to allow monitoring of the national implementation of the Convention, especially on complaints, investigations, criminal prosecutions, convictions and compensation paid in cases of torture and ill-treatment, violence among prisoners, trafficking in persons and domestic and sexual violence. The Committee realizes that the collection of personal data raises sensitive confidentiality issues, and emphasizes that appropriate measures should be taken to avoid misuse of data. 32. The Committee takes note of the State party’s response to the recommendation made in the course of the universal periodic review that it ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and that it set up a national preventive mechanism (A/HRC/11/21/Add.1, Recommendation 76 [1]), and encourages it to take all the necessary steps to ratify it as soon as possible. 10 GE.10-42570