National Commission for the Achievement of Equality between Men and Women, which had been created by a discretionary act of Government in 1984 ad She said that the Commission was an approved by Parliament in 1990. autonomous institution, the composition of which had to be renewed every three Its members comprised 29 women representing women’s associations. years. political parties, trade unions, employers’ unions, women’s cooperatives and social questions and literature. B women prominent in the fields of science, Five more experts and counsellors were collaborators, and the president was nominated from among its members by the President of the Council of Ministers. The representative gave a detailed description of all the tasks aarried out by the Commission and said that questions of access to work and -problems related to the plaae of work were not within its field of aompetenae. A draft law on positive actions to achieve equality between the sexes at the workplace, which foresaw the setting up of a special committee, was currently being debated by Parliament. The women counsellors for equality at the national and regional lev6ls would be assisted by women counsellors at the ,provincial level. Among other tasks, the Commission was promoting and encouraging initiatives-for an active pa+ic.ipation~of wgmep_ in public, social -aa economic life. ~~ recalled the low status of women during the Fascist 63. The representative -regime in all sphere6 inorder to emphasi6e the progress that women had She said that Italy had ratified the International achieved in the country. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The term “matters of honour” referred .to in the report-which was contained in provisions in the Penal Code of 1930, covered acts that had prompted someone to kill or attack certain persons in order to save personal honour or the honour of the family, and for which the s~,&!tions~~wure drasstiaally reduced. Law No. 442 had abolished such provisions. 64. Turning to questions raised under article 2 of the Convention, she said that articles 3, 29, 37 and 54 of the Constitution all contained the fundamental principle of equality and had to be interpreted in the light of the laws on family and labour. In addition, the different physical and maternal functions of women should not be forgotten even though they did not impair their right to equality of opportunity. Ghe said that the draft cods concerning measures against sexual violence was still being debated in Parliament. ’ Rowever, an important innovation was article 91 of the new Code for Criminal Proaedure, already in forae, which allowed associations whose interest consisted in protecting violated personal rights to participate in the trinl. She noted that, in February 1958, the High Court of Justiae had pronounced a judgement pursuant to which rape within marriage constituted a punishable offence. .- 7 .65. -On article 3, ths representative said that the National Plan of Action had already been partly implemented and partly strengthened by legislation+ The new National Commission, which was being restructured, would update the Plan of Action in accordance with the Third Plan of Action for Women of EEC. She said that the Government had followed, and sometimes even preceded, directives of EEC for the improvement of the status of women in Europa. 4, the representative said that, in order to harmonise the 66. On article? role of women within the family and outside the household, and considering that young women considered outside work a priority, it’was necessary to change the rigid structure of the labour market by introducing more flexible -16-