(6) The Committee welcomes the adoption of the National Human Rights Plan and its associated operational plans for different sectors, and the establishment of provincial subcommissions whose agendas reflect regional and local priorities. It especially welcomes the fact that prison issues are addressed in the Human Rights Operational Plan. (7) The Committee takes note of the fall in the number of complaints to the Commissioners for Women and the Family. (8) The Committee welcomes the open invitation extended by the State party to all special mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights, and particularly welcomes the recent visit by the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. (9) The Committee welcomes the establishment of the Human Rights Coordination Commission in 2002, an interdepartmental body in which civil society plays an active role in preparing the periodic reports that the State has to submit in order to comply with the international human rights treaties to which it is a party. (10) The Committee also welcomes the abolition of the Crime Investigation Office, which leaves the Public Prosecutor’s Office responsible for investigating crimes both at the preliminary stage and in the course of criminal investigations. (11) The Committee welcomes the cooperation between the Standing Committee on the National Human Rights Plan and civil society in the preparation of training manuals for prison officers in detention centres. (12) The Committee also welcomes the ratification by the State party of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families in 2003, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 2002 and the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons in 2002. C. Factors and difficulties impeding the implementation of the Convention (13) The Committee takes note of the political and constitutional crisis facing the State party. However, it points out that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever may be invoked as a justification of torture. D. Principal subjects of concern and recommendations (14) Although cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment is prohibited under the State party’s domestic legislation, the Committee expresses concern that the State party has not brought the definition of the offence of torture in the Ecuadorian Criminal Code fully into line with articles 1 to 4 of the Convention. The State party should take the necessary measures to ensure that all the acts of torture referred to in articles 1 to 4 of the Convention are considered offences under domestic criminal law and that appropriate punishments are handed down in each case, bearing in mind the serious nature of such offences. The Committee also recommends that the bill on crimes against humanity, which include torture, should be adopted as part of the process of implementing the Rome Statute. (15) While the Committee welcomes the adoption of the National Human Rights Plan and its associated operational plans for different sectors, which were drawn up with considerable input from civil society, it regrets that only one of the five civil-society organizations that originally contributed to the plans is still involved in the process of implementing them (art. 2). The State party should promote the National Human Rights Plan by introducing effective operational mechanisms that permit civil-society organizations to participate in the implementation of the Plan. 21