E/C.12/1/Add.65 page 5 30. The Committee urges the State party to take effective measures, including the development of strategies and awareness-raising activities, aimed at reducing and preventing the abandonment of children. In particular, the Committee recommends that the State party promote, through counselling and community-based programmes, the family as the best environment for the child and assist parents to keep their children at home. Moreover, it is recommended that the State party take effective measures to increase and strengthen family-based alternative care, so that children are placed in institutions only as a last resort. 31. The Committee recommends that the State party ensure that its commitment to primary health care is met by adequate allocation of resources and that all persons, especially from the most vulnerable groups, have access to health care. The Committee suggests that the State party establish comprehensive reproductive health programmes, as well as measures to ensure that abortion is not perceived as a method of contraception. It further recommends that adolescents have access to and be provided with reproductive health education, as well as with STD and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. The Committee recommends that the State party provide children with accurate and objective information about alcohol and tobacco use, and discourage activities on public mass media promoting their consumption. 32. The Committee recommends that the State party take all necessary measures to allocate the required resources to implement effectively the 1991 Law on Education. The Committee recommends that the State party ensure that general comments No. 11 on plans of action for primary education and No. 13 on the right to education, as well as general comment No. 1 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the aim of education, are duly taken into consideration when elaborating its educational policies. The Committee recommends that the State party promote the participation of parents and communities, especially ethnic minorities, in school governance in order to improve enrolment rates and monitor the quality of education. 33. The Committee encourages the State party to consider ratifying the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees as well as its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 34. The Committee recommends that the State party develop an ongoing programme for the dissemination of information regarding the content of the Covenant and its implementation among the public, civil society, and all sectors and levels of administration. Moreover, the Committee recommends that the State party develop systematic and ongoing training programmes on the provisions of the Covenant for professional groups, including parliamentarians, judges, lawyers and local government officials. 35. Finally, the Committee requests the State party to ensure the wide dissemination in Ukrainian society at all levels of the present concluding observations and to inform the Committee of steps taken to implement the recommendations in its fifth periodic report, to be submitted by 30 June 2006. -----

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