CEDAW/C/89/D/170/2021 for women and to eliminate discrimination, including the Act on equal opportunities for women and men of 2007 and the National Gender Equality Policy of 2019. 4.12 With respect to article 24 of the Convention, the State party claims that it has adopted various legislative and administrative measures to ensure that women can fully exercise their rights on equal terms, 17 including the National Plan against Gender-based Violence 2016–2021. 4.13 With respect to article 12 of the Convention, the State party claims that the Act on equal opportunities for women and men of 2007 contains explicit recognition of the existence of sexual and reproductive rights and establishes the obligation to ensure, without any discrimination, that health programmes serve to provide comprehensive coverage for illness and maternity to those living in poverty and extreme poverty. 4.14 In relation to article 14 of the Convention, the State party claims that the Government established the Round Table to Promote the Rights of Indigenous or Aboriginal Women in 2017 to coordinate, promote, propose and implement actions aimed at safeguarding the exercise of the individual and collective rights of Indigenous women, applying a cross-cutting, intercultural and gender-sensitive approach. Authors’ comments on the State party’s observations on admissibility and the merits 5.1 In their comments of 15 September 2023 and 15 January 2024, the authors claim that the State party has had access to all necessary information on their forced sterilization and that it has been given the opportunity to remedy the violation of their rights. 18 The authors claim that the fact that Gloria Basilio and Elena Rojas have not filed criminal complaints, and that no civil claims have been filed, has not prevented the State party from becoming aware of the violations committed. The authors claim that they provided the State party with an opportunity to remedy the matter when they made use of the special administrative procedure established by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights itself when it set up the Registry of Victims of Forced Sterilization. Inclusion in the Registry implies more than a simple manifestation of the victims’ desire to be added, because, in registering them, the State party acknowledged that the violations occurred. As a requirement for registration, the authors submitted a medical certificate verifying that the sterilization procedure had been performed or, as appropriate, a medical diagnosis confirming that such a procedure had been performed. Nevertheless, the violations have yet to be remedied, despite the knowledge that they occurred. 5.2 The authors reiterate their arguments relating to the exhaustion of domestic remedies, adding that the investigations remain ongoing more than six years after their cases were included in investigation No. 14-2016 and that such a time frame cannot be considered reasonable. 5.3 The authors claim that the lack of reparations and the very practice of forced sterilization constitute discrimination against women and recall the Committee’s concluding observations to the State party from 2014. 19 __________________ 17 18 19 10/19 The Act on equal opportunities for women and men; the Act on the prevention, punishment and eradication of violence against women and their families; the National Gender Equality Policy of 2019; the National Strategy for the Prevention of Gender-based Violence of 2021; and the 2021 National Strategic Development Plan. Communication 149/2019, N.A.E. v. Spain, para. 14.3. See CEDAW/C/PER/CO/7-8, para. 21. 24-19966