E/C.12MRT/CO/1 as among judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers on the strict application of anti-corruption legislation. 10. The Committee is deeply concerned that, under the Personal Status Code of 2001, adult women are placed under guardianship, ‘hadhana,’ if unmarried. The Committee is also deeply concerned about the other provisions of the Code assigning different roles, duties and rights to the husband and the wife in family matters, and different treatment to girls and to boys, resulting in inferior social status to women and girls and the deprivation of their equal rights provided in the Covenant. The Committee is further concerned at the State party’s reluctance, invoking religious grounds, to take steps to amend the 2001 Code (arts. 3 and 10). Recalling the reaffirmation in the Vienna Declaration of the obligation of States to counter religion or belief-based practices of discrimination on the ground of gender and the obligations of the State party under the Covenant to guarantee the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, the Committee urges the State party to take steps towards the amendment of the provisions of the 2001 Personal Status Code which are discriminatory on the ground of sex, especially against women. In particular, it calls on the State party to raise awareness among the population, including religious leaders, of the discriminatory nature of the guardianship as well as of the differentiated roles and responsibilities of the spouses in family matters, as far as they contravene the Covenant. It also calls on the State party to define and prohibit all forms of discrimination against women in its legislation. In this regard, the Committee refers the State party to its general comment No. 16 (2005) on the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and rights. 11. The Committee notes with concern that more than half of the female population of the State party is illiterate. Moreover, the Committee is concerned that only a small percentage of women in the State party is employed in salaried work and few women occupy high positions in the Government and in elected bodies, in spite of the introduction of quotas. The Committee is further concerned at the reluctance of the State party to bring about changes, as illustrated by the statement made by the delegation, that women’s place in society is not fulfilled through employment or a professional career (arts. 3 and 6). The Committee urges the State party to address the root causes of unemployment among women, including by (a) carrying out awareness-raising campaigns to change the society’s perception of gender roles; (b) ensuring that girls pursue their education at all levels and have access to secondary and higher education; (c) effectively enforcing the quotas provided for by the law; and (d) eliminating other forms of discrimination against women in employment, such as their ineligibility for a position in the magistracy. 12. The Committee is concerned that, in spite of the implementation of the 2008-2012 national strategy for employment, unemployment rate remains high in the State party, especially among young people (art. 6). The Committee urges the State party to pursue its efforts aimed at reducing unemployment, especially among the youth, and to ensure that the scope of measures taken and resources invested are commensurate with the scale of unemployment in the State party, with a view to securing the progressive fulfilment of the right to work. The Committee also calls on the State party to adopt a human rights-based approach in the implementation of the 2011-2015 priorities. In this regard, the Committee calls on the State party to take into consideration its general comment No. 18 (2005) on the right to work. 3

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