CEDAW/C/SR.37 English Page 5 (Ms. Baziyaka, Rwania) Convention1 it had also ratified or acceded to a number of other important international instruments which enhanced the status of women. In addition, the number of Rwandese women representing their country in international forums was constantly increasing. 16. At the national level, article 16 of the Constitution proclaimed the equality of men and women, and declared that all citizens were equal before the law, without any discrimination on such grounds as race, colour, origin, ethnic group, sex, q,inion, religion or social position. The 1978 Constitution represented an advarce over that of 1962, adopted by Rwanda upon attaining irrlependence. The 1962 Constitution had placed men in a predominant position: for example, under article 30, men had been considered the natural head of the family. The 1978 Constitution had abolished all discrunination based on sex: article 9 provided that all Rwandese citizens of full age who did not fall within one of the categories excluded by law had the right to vote in elections in the circumstances prescribed by law. Thus, the 1978 Constitution represented an advance over that of 1962: whereas the latter had luaited the political rights of women, who could not be candidates for the presidency of the Republic, the 1978 Constitution had abolished that discrimination, and merely imposed the conditions that the candidates must occupy the post of President of the National Revolutionary Movement for Develq,ment and must be at least 35 years old, there being no mention of their sex. Furtherrnore, the 1962 Constitution had already abolished polygamy, arrl the prohibition was maintained in the 1978 Constitution. 17. The Constitution also prohibited discrimination on grounds of sex in the case of public freedoms. It recognized that both women and men had the right to education, work, equal opportunities and equal pay for equal work. Moreover, women were entitled to social security, paid holidays and retirement and widow's pensions, and special measures had been adopted to protect women, such as t\oiOmonths' paid maternity leave. Where they combined maternity leave with annual holidays, they could remain at home after the birth for the following three months. The husband was entitled to four-days' leave upon the birth of each child. In addition, nursing mothers were allowed one hour per day to breast-feed their children. 18. The Constitution and l:{wandese penal law adopt the principle that criminal responsibility was personal, and that considerations based on sex did not influen::e the determination of responsibility. The Rwandese Criminal Code punished acts of adultery, prostitution, abortion, the advertising of means of abortion and the desertion of the family, whether carried out by men or women. It was important to note that the concern of the legislator had been to protect women. Prostitution, a phenomenon that had resulted from the contact of the in:iigenous society with foreign civilizations and the introduction of rroney, was prohibited, in the case of the prostitute as well as the instigators, exploiters, pimps arrl others who facilitated the exercise of prostitution. The Criminal Code also provided for aggravating circumstances in the case of pimps, exploiters and those who facilitated prostitution when the offence affected minors or was corranitted without the consent of the person concerned. The measures adopted by the Rwandese Government to combat prostitution included the q>ening of two re-education centres for repeated offenlers. The legislator had also sought to punish parents who I ...