E/CN.4/2005/85/Add.4 page 11 36. The Ombudsman reported that an inter-institutional cooperation agreement had been signed on 19 January 2004 between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ombudsman’s Office to defend the fundamental rights of Peruvians abroad. This agreement enables the Ombudsman’s Office, at the request of the Peruvian consular offices and in coordination with its counterparts in the host country, to collaborate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when Peruvian citizens require humanitarian or legal support. For its part, the Ministry undertakes to install letter boxes in the consular offices to receive complaints addressed directly to the Ombudsman’s Office. This initiative enables the latter to receive first-hand information about problems that Peruvians may have in their relations with the consular offices and the authorities in the host country. In the first case the complaints are transmitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the second the Ombudsman’s Office contacts its counterpart in the host country. The Ombudsman’s Office has set up a system for doing this, and already had agreements with the ombudsman’s offices in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador and with human rights NGOs in Chile. 37. The Ombudsman’s Office has been informed of cases of young Peruvian girls being ill-treated and sexually abused (in Switzerland); Peruvians deprived of liberty and not given legal assistance (in Colombia) or refused humanitarian assistance by the consulate (in Ecuador); non-compliance with the duty of consular protection (in Switzerland); ill-treatment and discrimination in attending to Peruvians in consular offices, processing delays, high consular fees and a lack of interest in the situation of Peruvians living within the jurisdiction of the consulates (in Argentina and Switzerland); and irregularities in the election of the advisory councils (in Spain and Switzerland). 38. The Ombudsman’s Office promoted the adoption of the Declaration of the Andean Council of Ombudsmen on the protection and promotion of the rights of migrants in the Andean region, signed in Lima on 2 February 2004. In this document, the ombudsmen of the subregion expressed their concern at the situation of the migrant population in the countries of the subregion; reiterated their willingness to cooperate in dealing with violations of the human rights of migrants; and expressed their desire to coordinate their activities with the consulates with regard to the protection of migrants and to supervise the conduct of the former closely. They also expressed concern at the discriminatory treatment of migrants and refugees from the subregion in the industrialized countries, and their desire to establish an Andean ombudsmen’s network for the rights of migrants so that the ombudsman’s offices could serve as an intermediary between the State and the migrant. 39. The chairman of the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee reported on the activities of the working group on Peruvians abroad. This group had proposed the establishment under the Electoral Act of a special electoral district for nationals abroad, so that they could vote for their own representatives, either as voters enrolled in their district of origin or through the creation of a special district. The working group is behind the Migration Incentives Act16 which, pending the adoption of the appropriate regulations for implementation, offers economic benefits to Peruvian migrant workers returning to Peru, such as a customs exemption for the import of household goods, a vehicle and professional tools. Other projects being developed include the organization of associations of family members of Peruvians abroad, which could propose