E/C.12/CRI/CO/4 page 4 25. The Committee is deeply concerned about the increasingly high rate of teenage pregnancies, in spite of the State party’s policies and programmes on sexual and reproductive health, as well as the fact that no exceptions are provided to the general prohibition of abortion. 26. The Committee is concerned that, despite the State party’s efforts to address housing shortage, a high percentage of dwellings, especially those inhabited by indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and migrants, is in poor condition, often without access to drinking water and adequate sanitation, and that many of these communities still live in slums and squats, sometimes on river banks and in other high-risk areas. The Committee is also concerned about the lack of disaggregated data on the number of forced evictions in the State party. 27. The Committee notes with concern the potential impact of the entry into force of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on the State party’s obligations under the Covenant and, in particular, on traditional agriculture, labour rights, access to health, social security and the intellectual property regimes protecting, inter alia, access to generic medicines, biodiversity, water and the right of indigenous communities associated to these resources. 28. The Committee is concerned about the quality of health care provided, in particular in remote and rural areas. 29. The Committee notes with concern that illiteracy rates among indigenous communities remain significantly higher than the national average, despite of the fact that the State party’s adoption of legislation, policies and programmes to make education accessible to those communities. 30. The Committee is concerned about the increase in the percentage of the secondary school drop-out rate caused, inter alia, by family disintegration, lack of pedagogical attention and child labour and drug abuse, in spite of its institutional measures and policies adopted in this regard. 31. The Committee is concerned that the budget of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports has drastically decreased in recent years. E. Suggestions and recommendations 32. The Committee recommends that the State party ensure that the provisions of the Covenant are directly applicable in the domestic legal order and requests the State party to provide in its next periodic report information on case law regarding the implementation of the Covenant. 33. The Committee urges the State party to ensure that racial discrimination be criminalized as a specific offence and punished according to the seriousness of the crime, that acts of racial discrimination be identified and its perpetrators duly prosecuted, that training be provided to public officials to enhance their awareness in matters of racial discrimination and that campaigns to combat racial discrimination be undertaken to sensitize the public on this issue. 34. The Committee recommends that the State party ensure that the interests of all indigenous communities be fully represented on the board of the National Commission on Indigenous Affairs and that this institution receives sufficient financial and institutional State support necessary for its functioning.