A/HRC/13/39/Add.2 prior to and during the visit; the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR); Dr. Máximo Duque, forensic doctor; and Julia Kozma and Isabelle Tschan of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights. 8. At the close of the mission, the Special Rapporteur shared with the Government his preliminary findings, to which it responded with constructive comments. On 14 October 2009, a preliminary version of this report was sent to the Government. On 13 November 2009, the Government provided comments. 9. The Special Rapporteur was encouraged to note that the Government took his preliminary recommendations made at the end of his fact-finding mission very seriously, and that initial measures, including plans to alleviate overcrowding in prisons, were announced by the President, Dr. Tabaré Vázquez, shortly after the mission took place. II. Legal framework A. International level 10. Uruguay is party to the major United Nations human rights treaties prohibiting torture and ill-treatment: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment (CAT); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD); and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CRPD, not yet in force). 11. Uruguay has also ratified the first Optional Protocol to ICCPR, recognizing the competence of the United Nations Human Rights Committee to receive and consider individual complaints, as well as the Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR, aimed at the abolition of the death penalty. On 8 December 2005, Uruguay ratified the Optional Protocol to CAT. It has made a declaration to the effect that it recognizes the competence of the Committee against Torture to receive communications from other States parties as well as from or on behalf of individuals under articles 21 and 22 of the Convention against Torture, respectively. 12. Uruguay is also party to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Additional Protocols to the Conventions of 1977 and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. B. Regional level 13. With regard to relevant regional human rights treaties in the context of the Organization of American States, Uruguay is party to the American Convention on Human Rights, the Protocol to the American Convention to Abolish the Death Penalty, the Additional Protocol to the American Convention in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“Protocol of San Salvador”), and recognizes the competence of the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights. 14. Uruguay has also ratified the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons and the InterAmerican Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women (“Convention of Belém do Pará”). GE.09-17655 5