Sources : I – CNM extrapolation from EPH-INDEC figures. II – CNM extrapolation from figures from the national and provincial legislatures.

As already pointed out, the fact that females remain longer than males in the education system and obtain higher qualifications is not always reflected in comparative advantages when they join and compete in the labour market. (See data on and measures for women in enterprises and on non-traditional technical education courses: points 15, 16 and 17 of the list of issues and questions.)

Health

20. The report refers to limited instances in which abortion is not prohibited. Please specify whether the Government has undertaken any measures to decriminalize abortion. Also provide detailed information on how many women were prosecuted for having illegal abortions in the period under consideration and what sanctions were imposed.

The Ministry of Health has no data on women who have been prosecuted for having illegal abortions. A few years ago it produced a technical handbook on handling non-punishable abortions for the health teams concerned; this handbook is currently being distributed throughout the public health system.

The National Women’s Council has been monitoring, as an amicus curiae, legal proceedings in which women request permission to have abortions and has expressed itself clearly in defence of the human rights of the women concerned.

A bill on voluntary interruption of pregnancy, entailing repeal of article 85, paragraph 2, and articles 86 and 88 of the Criminal Code, was tabled recently in the National Chamber of Deputies. The main thrust of this bill is to recognize a woman’s right to opt for the voluntary interruption of her pregnancy during the first 12 weeks and to obtain an abortion in the health system. The bill also establishes that, leaving aside the 12-week provision, all women will be entitled to decide to interrupt their pregnancy if it was caused by rape certified by a court or police report or a complaint made to a health facility, if there is any risk to the woman’s health or life, or if there are serious foetal deformities. Any doctors or other health personnel having conscientious objections will have to make them known to the authorities of the referral establishments within 30 days of the promulgation of the forthcoming law; any personnel joining the health system after that date will be able to state their objections when they take up their posts. Professional personnel who have not stated objections within the time limit will not be able to refuse to perform abortions. In all cases the competent health authority will have to ensure correct professional practices, but it will be possible for abortions to proceed without any prior judicial authorization, except in the case of girls aged under 14, when the consent of at least one of their legal representatives will be required, together with guarantees of the full exercise of the rights and safeguards prescribed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Law 23.849).

21. Please provide detailed information on how many women have reported becoming pregnant as a result of rape in the past four years and how many have died because of illegal abortions. Kindly provide detailed information on any efforts taken to address that issue. Please also provide information on measures taken to raise victims’ awareness of the importance of receiving medical treatment after an attack.

This information is not collected at the national level. The absolute numbers of deaths due to abortion in recent years are as follows:

2005: 79

2006: 93

2007: 74

2008: 62

The Department of Maternity and Infant Care and the Programme on Improvement of Post-Abortion Care have been established in order to upgrade the medical care of women who have had abortions. Their main purpose is to provide humane care for all patients with complications resulting from abortion (either spontaneous or induced), including respect for their sexual and reproductive rights and with emphasis on information and guidance with respect to sexual and reproductive health and on the provision of the means of contraception chosen by the users before their discharge from hospital, with a view to avoiding any future unplanned pregnancies, such pregnancies being the main reason why women find themselves in this sad situation.

Health teams are being trained for this purpose throughout the country in theoretical and practical workshops. A guide to improved post-abortion care has been produced to support this training, and CDs with an updated bibliography have been reproduced and distributed, together with a video on this subject made by the Ministry of Health in facilities of the public health system. A leaflet for potential users of these services has also been produced and distributed with the aim of encouraging early intervention (thus avoiding complications resulting from unsafe abortions - the primary cause of maternal mortality in Argentina), determining the demand, and publicizing the available means of contraception.

In addition, some of the country’s provinces, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and a number of municipal authorities have adopted protocols on the care of victims of sexual violence. In order to correct the unequal access to care services in this area the National Sexual Health and Responsible Parenthood Programme (PNSSPR) has drafted a national protocol on the care of victims of sexual violence, which will ensure exercise of the rights set out in the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This protocol incorporates and acknowledges as antecedents the provincial and municipal rules on this topic; it has the following goals:

1.To guarantee the exercise of their human rights by victims of sexual violence;

2.To reduce morbidity among victims of sexual violence;

3.To prevent pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS by providing emergency services;

4.To ensure that evidence is obtained and preserved, furnish psychological care, and accommodate and treat victims for as long as necessary.

A survey made by the PNSSPR in 2009 indicated that 13.2 per cent of the hospitals which provide means of contraception (90.1 per cent of all the country’s hospitals) also have specific services for caring for victims of sexual violence. Only 2.1 of the primary care facilities provide such services.

22. The Committee, in its previous concluding comments (see A/59/38, part two, paras. 380-381), expressed concern about the lack of information on the State party’s efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of the National Programme for Sexual Health and Responsible Parenthood and requested the State party to include in its next periodic report comprehensive information on its evaluation. The report provides information on the impact of the Programme. However, 4 of the programme’s 10 objectives have not been evaluated because statistical information from 2005 has not been consolidated. Please provide statistical information regarding those objectives so that the impact of the programme in those four areas may also be assessed.

Immediately following its creation the National Sexual Health and Responsible Parenthood Programme (PNSSPR) was housed in the National Institute of Maternity and Infant Care, under the auspices of the Department of Community Health. In 2006 it acquired administrative and financial independence under the Department. At that time it established as its central objective the closure of the gaps in the provision of sexual and reproductive health services to the people. To this end it proposes to carry out measures to address the key defect in the provision of these services: access to quality care.

In the PNSSPR the right to sexual and reproductive health is understood to mean the capacity to enjoy a satisfactory and risk-free sex life and to decide whether to have children and their number and spacing. This right is the fundamental premise guiding its activities and strategies. Its work is designed to guarantee men and women access to appropriate and timely information on sexual and reproductive health, as well as to safe and effective methods of regulating births, and to provide appropriate pregnancy and childbirth services. The chief priorities are universal free access to the sexual and reproductive health services, equality of opportunities, quality care, and the redistribution of material and non-material resources.

The foundations were laid in 2006 for a unified system for monitoring and evaluation of the programme; although it was initiated only recently, considerable progress has been made with its implementation. In addition, 2005 saw the conduct of the first sexual and reproductive health survey, as part of the National Nutrition and Health Survey (ENNyS), with the principal aim of obtaining information to guide and set the priorities for the PNSSPR in the light of women’s needs in this area. The findings made it possible to identify patterns of behaviour and provided information about women’s sexual and reproductive health, as well as facilitating an evaluation of the circumstances and ways in which women exercise their sexual and reproductive rights. In 2009 a set of indicators was chosen for monitoring the programme’s implementation from that year and the progress made towards its objectives.

A national system for the supply of contraceptives was established and consolidated in the context of the measures introduced under objective 2 of Law 25.673, which establishes the State’s obligation to ensure that the whole population has access to information and advice and to means of contraception. A subsystem for the supply of means of contraception to women and a subsystem for the supply of condoms were established in 2007 as an initial step in consolidating this policy. The target population of the first subsystem is women of reproductive age (15-49 age group), excluding pregnant women, who are not members of a social security or prepayments scheme. This criterion is justified by the fact that, being excluded from private social security schemes, it is these women and girls who are least able to afford means of contraceptive and are therefore more vulnerable. The target population of the subsystem for the supply of condoms is men and women in the 15-64 age group who are not members of a social security or prepayments scheme. Although the members of this group are considered to be of reproductive age, only a very small number of the adolescents in the group are sexually active. Only a few over-65s use contraceptives.

In the period 2003-2009 the PNSSPR distributed a total of 75,954,806 contraceptive items at a cost of 28,418,097 pesos.

Year	Total items	Total cost (pesos)
2005	21 085 968	7 000 800
2006	14 690 651	6 343 612
2007	6 576 984	2 476 355
2008	15 377 611	6 857 636
2009	9 326 700	5 739 694

In 2006, 78 per cent of the health establishments in the public sector offered sexual and reproductive health services, but by the end of 2009 the figure stood at 86 per cent of all providers.

A breakdown of the figures for the various jurisdictions over the past year provides a more detailed picture of their differing levels of coverage. According to data from the provincial programmes in the 13 of the 21 provinces which reported in this period (Chaco, City of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Corrientes, La Pampa, Mendoza, Neuquén, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Tierra del Fuego, and Tucumán), 100 per cent of the provincial service providers distributed some kind of means of contraception. In five of the other eight provinces the proportion of such providers was above 90 per cent: Buenos Aires (98 per cent); Chubut (96.7 per cent); Entre Ríos (94.6 per cent); Jujuy (96.1 per cent) and Misiones (97 per cent). The figures were 67.4 per cent for La Rioja, 53.9 per cent for Santiago del Estero, and 26.7 per cent for Catamarca.

These figures indicate that an average of 91 per cent of providers distributed some means of contraception.

There has been a significant decline in the number of authorized providers of other sexual and reproductive health services, such as post-abortion care, support for victims of sexual violence, and surgical sterilization. And provision of these services is even rarer in the provincial primary care facilities: Neuquén is the only province where these facilities provide sexual violence services, and only Mendoza has three performing vasectomies.

To sum up, the number of facilities in the public health subsystem offering sexual and reproductive health services has increased significantly and fairly uniformly, thus helping to institutionalize the PNSSPR throughout the country.

With regard to the provision of means of contraception, since 2003 the PNSSPR has been distributing, free of charge, oral, injected and lactation-period hormonal contraceptives, inter-uterine devices (IUDs) and condoms. In 2006, with the blessing of Law 26.130, tubal ligation and vasectomy were added to the list. The new national regulations establish that Argentina’s three health subsectors (public, social security, and private) have to provide these forms of surgical intervention entirely free of charge and subject only to the requirements that the patient should be of the age of majority and give his or her informed consent. In that same year the PNSSPR added emergency contraception, also known as “the morning-after pill”, to the free services available in the public health system. In contrast to the rest of the programme’s performance, it is clear that in some cases the provision of these latter two methods, and to a lesser extent of IUDs, has met with strong resistance from providers of health services. Reports and research produced since the establishment of the programme describe the various obstacles encountered by women seeking to exercise their sexual and reproductive health rights. Other obstacles are connected basically with a lack of information or appropriate resources on the part of users and with sexual violence.

With regard to the target population of the PNSSPR services, the information provided by the provinces indicates that 2,068,951 persons obtained sexual and reproductive health services, including means of contraception. The maternal mortality rate fell from 333 in 2006 to 296 in 2008. Deaths due to abortion also declined in that same period, from 93 in 2006 to 62 in 2008. Hospital admissions for abortion also fell:

2005: 68,869

2006: 67,472

2007: 59,960

It should be added that in 2008 the Ministry of Health introduced the National Cervical Cancer Prevention Programme, whose function is to implement measures to prevent this pathology and reduce its incidence and the associated mortality rate.

23. The report points out that in 2005, 52 per cent of cases of maternal mortality were related to insufficient medical care and quality of health services. Please provide statistical information on the main causes and rates of maternal mortality during 2006 and 2007. Also, please provide information on major efforts carried out to enhance access to quality health services across the country.

Maternal mortality in absolute figures

2005: 279

2006: 333

2007: 306

2008: 296

Maternal mortality by cause

	2005	2006	2007	2008
Direct obstetrical causes	2.1	2.5	2.2	2.3
Indirect obstetrical causes	0.7	0.9	1.1	0.8
Terminations by abortion	1.1	1.3	1.1	0.8

Introduction of the NACER Plan

Since 2005 the Ministry of Health has been promoting in the country’s 24 provincial jurisdictions, under the NACER Plan, the introduction and development of provincial mother and child health insurance schemes (SMIPs) with a view to improving, from an “equity” standpoint, the access of mothers and children to a basic package of services, selected for their relevance to health care, which is expected to help to reduce maternal and infant mortality by addressing those causes which can be tackled by means of diagnosis, prevention and timely treatment. These health insurance schemes are to be introduced in several stages and will incorporate new and more complex methods of tackling those causes of maternal and infant mortality which are difficult to bring down, methods such as surgical treatment of congenital heart conditions, sophisticated maternal and neonatal care, and diagnosis and prevention of a number of chronic diseases. There are also plans to extend the coverage to other population groups, such as children and young people up to age 18 and women up to age 60.

The State has contributed to the establishment and consolidation of these schemes in the form of results-based transfers, which had totalled 363,328,393 pesos by 31 July 2009. One innovative aspect of the NACER Plan is that the transfers from the National Government to the provinces and from the provinces to their providers are tied to agreed, specified, measurable and verifiable outcomes which have an impact on maternal and infant mortality. This investment of economic resources is tailored to the needs of the providers, who decide on the final destination of the funds; this is a noteworthy aspect of this programme as a public health policy which seeks to build up the local management capacity. As of 30 June 2009 SMIPs had funded 12,798,451 maternal and child treatments listed in the NACER Plan. These treatments are delivered by a network of public providers, who enter into annual commitments under the Plan and make it possible to target the efforts of the provincial authorities effectively on the attainment of the objectives. As of 30 September 2009 a total of 5,481 participating providers had received over 250 million pesos in respect of invoiced treatments and the outcomes achieved. These services and care were delivered to the Plan’s target population: children up to age six years and pregnant women lacking any formal health coverage for a period of 45 days following childbirth; there have been 1,031,166 beneficiaries so far. Members of this population are identified and listed and assigned to an establishment in the public care network, which must submit reports on the treatment provided, in accordance with the good practice protocols.

The operation of this model is based on a reporting system which facilitates both the allocation of transfers to the provinces and the monitoring of the health outcomes. The performance of the provincial health systems and the results achieved are monitored by means of a set of health indicators which evaluate and reward the best results in terms of the early involvement of pregnant women, the monitoring of healthy children, sexual and reproductive health care, the formation and operation of local death-registration committees, and the immunization coverage, to mention some of the aspects evaluated. In order to verify that the rewarded health outcomes have actually been achieved the Plan uses a mechanism of oversight and concurrent external audit which examines the clinical records of the participating providers and produces regional, provincial and departmental data for the specific monitoring of the care received by the Plan’s target population

Strategic Plan for the Reduction of Maternal and Infant Mortality 2009-2011

In 2008 the provincial health ministries agreed at a meeting of the Federal Health Council (COFESA) to implement this Strategic Plan for the period 2009-2011. The following action has been taken so far to give effect to the Plan:

Identification of the provinces requiring priority attention owing to their maternal and infant mortality rates;

Guarantee of the “provincial political will” to bring about the necessary changes;

Involvement of the national and provincial social stakeholders;

Conduct of participatory working sessions to determine the causes of the problem and propose measures for tackling it;

Establishment of targets;

Social communication;

Signature of political agreements between the National Government and the provinces;

Joint monitoring of the Plan;

Evaluation of the outcomes.

Targets

General objectives	Current national situation (2007)	Impact	Targets for 2011
Reduction of maternal mortality	4.4%	25%	3.3%
Reduction of the number of abortion-related deaths	22.6%	50%	11.3% of all abortion-related deaths at all ages
Reduction of deaths from cervical cancer	46.8%	30%	60% of screened women in the 35-64 age group

24. The report points out that in 2005, the teenage pregnancy rate was relatively high. Please provide statistical information on how many cases of teenage pregnancy were reported during the period under review.

Percentages of babies born live to mothers known to be aged under 15 in 2005:

2005: 0.4

2006: 0.4

2007: 0.4

Percentages of babies born live to mothers known to aged under 20 in 2005:

2005: 15.2

2006: 15.4

2007: 15.6

25. The report refers to National Law 26.130 on surgical contraception, which was passed in 2006 and regulates the medical practice of fallopian tubal ligation or vasectomy. Please provide information on the implementation of that law across the country and indicate major difficulties that have been encountered in attempts to implementing it effectively.

Tubal ligation is offered by 31.1 per cent of the hospitals providing means of contraception, but only 6.2 per cent perform vasectomies.

There are 11 provinces in which the number of hospitals performing tubal ligation is below the average. In four provinces none of the hospitals perform this operation (Chubut, Entre Ríos, Jujuy, Tucumán); in two provinces (Neuquén, Tierra del Fuego) all the hospitals dispensing means of contraception perform it; and in two provinces (Córdoba, La Pampa) 90 per cent of providers perform it.

The main impediment to the availability of tubal ligation is ignorance of the regulations on the part of medical personnel and the conscientious objection of a significant number of health providers who, on religious or doctrinal grounds, refuse to perform the operation.

The proportion of hospitals performing vasectomies is low in 10 provinces and nil in another five; the City of Buenos Aires has the biggest proportion of hospitals performing this operation (54.5 per cent).

26. In its previous concluding comments (see A/59/38, part two, paras. 380-381), the Committee expressed concern regarding the increase in sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Please provide statistical information on the percentage of people infected with HIV/AIDS during the period under consideration, disaggregated by sex, age and ethnic group. Please indicate whether there is a national registry providing comparable data that could facilitate access to information. Please also specify whether any programmes specifically dedicated to women and girls have been introduced to combat sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

There is no statistical information disaggregated by age or ethnic group, only by sex.

Rate per 100,000 inhabitants and in percentage terms

Cases

	Male	Female	Both	Male	Female	Both
2001	3 640	2 010	5 667	20.0	10.6	15.3
2002	3 288	1 861	5 151	17.9	9.7	13.7
2003	3 626	2 233	5 859	19.6	11.6	15.5
2004	3 760	2 446	6 208	20.1	12.5	16.2
2005	3 257	2 042	5 299	17.2	10.4	13.7
2006	3 008	1 836	4 844	15.8	9.2	12.4
2007	2 765	1 657	4 422	14.3	8.3	11.2
2008	2 434	1 633	4 967	12.5	8.1	10.2

The national male/female ratio of new HIV infections has remained stable for several years at about 1.6 males for every woman diagnosed. At the regional level, there were very small declines in most of the provincial jurisdictions except for Buenos Aires, which remained stable at 1.2, and in Cuyo, which has recently seen a slight increase. At both levels the ratio increased in step with age, with the figure for the 15-24 age group rising to double that of the 35-44 age group, the group in which the widest variations were found.

Argentina’s AIDS mortality rate peaked at 59.6 deaths per million inhabitants in 1996 before declining and then stabilizing at 40 per million in 1999. Disaggregation of the figures by sex shows that, while the male rate has fallen very sharply, the female rate had quadrupled by its peak and was three times higher throughout most of the period 1990-2007. The narrowing of the gap between the sexes in recent years has been produced by a bigger fall in the male mortality rate.

AIDS mortality rate, by sex, per million inhabitants

	Deaths		Rate (percentages)
	Male	Female	Cause uncertain	Total	Male	Female	Total
1990	243	41	2	286	15.2	2.5	8.8
1991	389	68	3	460	24.0	4.0	13.9
1992	631	111	6	748	38.4	6.5	22.3
1993	683	124	9	816	41.0	7.2	24.1
1994	963	232	17	1 212	57.1	13.3	35.3
1995	1 385	363	24	1 772	81.2	20.5	51.0
1996	1 614	440	44	2 098	93.5	24.5	59.6
1997	1 351	438	40	1 829	77.4	24.1	51.4
1998	1 252	421		1 673	70.9	22.9	46.5
1999	1 087	382		1 469	60.9	20.9	40.4
2000	1 120	351	1	1 472	62.1	18.7	40.0
2001	1 092	382		1 474	60.0	20.2	39.7
2002	1 142	386		1 528	62.1	20.2	40.7
2003	1 155	416	2	1 573	62.3	21.5	41.5
2004	1 055	396	1	1 452	56.4	20.3	38.0
2005	923	381	3	1 307	48.8	19.3	33.9
2006	1 015	388		1 403	53.2	19.5	36.0
2007	994	429	2	1 425	51.6	21.4	36.2

The AIDS Administration has produced in conjunction with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) handbooks on the integrated care of HIV-infected women; these handbooks were drafted during field work in each province with the health personnel involved in providing the care (gynaecologists, obstetricians, psychologists, members of local communities, etc.) and with relevant scientific associations. The handbooks cover care, prevention, reproductive health, and legal questions; they are available at: www.msal.gov.ar/sida.

Programmes for the prevention of vertical transmission of HIV and syphilis have also been carried out.

Social and economic benefits

27. The report states that although in principle there are no limits on women’s access to lines of credit, mortgages and other forms of credit, in practice such impediments exist, particularly with respect to access to lines of credit and guarantees. Please provide information on the constraints faced by women in that regard, and specify whether efforts are being carried out by the Government in order to eliminate any de facto inequality between women and men on the issue. Also, please indicate what efforts are being made in that area to address the marginalized situation of indigenous Afro-Argentineans and other minorities.

The sixth periodic report emphasized the absence of obstacles to women’s access to lines of credit and other financial instruments. A set of measures was also introduced by ministries and other state agencies (the Ministry of Production, for example) to ensure that both women and men have access to various loan instruments. All these measures are designed to reinforce the vigorous policies to generate jobs and stimulate consumption; their modalities and requirements are extremely flexible, so that they are accessible to social groups historically excluded from such policies. Although the sex-disaggregated impact on access has not yet been evaluated, no gender requirements or specific restrictions have been identified.

Set of policies carried out by the Ministry of Production:

-Loans for the purchase of consumer durables: the Government invited banking institutions to tender to provide these funds, setting guide rates of 11 per cent for pesos and 7 per cent for dollars. The loans are for 12-month terms. Consumer loans may be used for the purchase of domestic electrical appliances, clothing, footwear and holiday trips. The target in this group is 700,000 loans. Loans for 48-month terms may also be granted for the purchase of vehicles in amounts up to 90 per cent of the purchase price, at fixed interest rates. The target in this case is 100,000 loans;

-Plan for the replacement of bicycles, utility vehicles, and lorries: loans for the purchase of lorries and utility vehicles, with 70 per cent paid in instalments and a down-payment of 30 per cent or 12 months, and with terms of up to 36 months;

-Exchange plan for white goods: purchase of white goods at a discount when a similar used item is given part-exchange. The loans are for 12 months at a rate of 11 per cent;

-Extension of the incentives scheme for investment and local production of capital goods and farm machinery: this scheme promotes the purchase of capital goods and farm machinery by reducing import tariffs. The incentive operates as a tax credit equivalent to the tariff (14 per cent) which may be applied to the payment of value added tax (VAT), advanced payments against profits and minimum assumed profits, and domestic taxes. In 2008 this scheme turned over a total of 1,004 million pesos and benefited 2,000 registered businesses. Additional conditions were incorporated in the latest extension of the scheme: (i) maintenance of staffing levels; and (ii) a time limit of 60 days for the production of the invoices on the basis of which the subsidy is calculated;

-Incorporation in the tax allowance scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of a component for the financing of working capital: this consists of loans at a subsidized rate (12.5 per cent) for amounts not exceeding 300,000 pesos, for a term of 12 months;

-Loans for SMEs and micro-enterprises belonging to a value chain: this operates through the formation of regional/sectoral networks for lines of credit to fund the modernization and/or expansion of the production processes of SMEs and micro-enterprises. The central enterprises act as guarantors of bank loans for the procurement of capital goods of domestic origin;

-Promotion of investment in capital assets and infrastructure works: this consists of tax benefits for enterprises submitting projects for investment in infrastructure works and production activities of high social and economic impact connected with electricity generation, hydrocarbon mining and processing, hydraulic works, roads, railways and other projects designed to expand production capacity in all economic sectors. The scheme provides for the prompt refund of the VAT on the goods or infrastructure works included in the investment project submitted by the enterprise and/or for the accelerated depreciation of goods under the profits tax. Application may also be made for exemption from import duty and accounting and audit fees in respect of new goods or equipment produced abroad and required for the implementation of the infrastructure works.

Rural women

28. In its previous concluding comments (see A/59/38, part two, paras. 376-377), the Committee expressed concern regarding the situation of rural women, particularly in view of their extreme poverty and lack of access to health care, education, credit facilities and community services. The report points out that difficulties faced in the promotion of the rights of rural women include sexism, violence and other difficulties related to women’s health and education. It also states that there is a lack of coordination within various institutions working on those problems. Please specify what efforts have been carried out by the Government to promote coordination between different institutions in order to tackle those difficulties. Please also specify whether the national budget sets aside a specific amount for programmes to benefit rural women.

29. Please provide information on how the mortality rate of rural women compares to that of urban women. Please also provide statistical information on infant mortality rates in rural areas compared to those in urban areas.

The sixth periodic report (Special section on application of article 14 of the Convention) indicated the governmental agencies and described the programmes concerned with rural women, beginning with the arrangements and forums for joint work with various agencies and programmes of the National Government. Contact was then made with a number of bodies with a view to exchanges of experience and pooling of efforts in the incorporation of gender perspectives in the relevant public policies. During the presentation of the sixth report the Argentine delegation will be able to update the required information.

Amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention

30. Please describe progress towards acceptance of the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention.

The National Congress approved the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention by Law 26.486 of April 2009.