E/C.12/GNQ/CO/1 intergovernmental sources primarily supply statistical data and major economic indicators, the information provided by the academic literature, non-governmental organizations and the press tends, by definition, to be more critical of the political, economic and social situation in a given country. Under normal circumstances, the constructive dialogue between a State party that is presenting its report and the Committee gives that country’s Government the opportunity to set out its views and to attempt to refute criticism and demonstrate to the Committee that its policies are in line with the Covenant. 6. Equatorial Guinea acceded to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on 25 September 1987 and has still not submitted its initial report. On 13 December 2011, the Committee informed the State party that it would be considering the situation of economic, social and cultural rights in Equatorial Guinea at its session in November 2012. In May 2012, the pre-sessional working group adopted a list of issues prepared in the absence of an initial report (E/C.12/GNQ/Q/1) to help the State party prepare its report for the Committee or provide the Committee with relevant information in another form. 7. The Committee takes note of the State party’s replies to the list of issues prepared by the Committee (E/C.12/GNQ/Q/1/Add.1). However, the Committee regrets that the replies were not exhaustive, that they did not provide sufficient up-to-date statistics on the enjoyment in the State party of the rights recognized in the Covenant and that the replies were submitted just a few days before the Committee’s exchange of views with the State party. The Committee also takes note of the presence of a delegation from the State party at two meetings of the Committee on 22 November 2012 and of its members’ exchange of views with the Committee. 8. The Committee has based these concluding observations on the State party’s replies to the list of issues, on the information provided in the course of the delegation’s exchange of views with the Committee on 22 November 2012 and on the material provided by intergovernmental and non-governmental sources. Given the regrettable absence of a comprehensive initial report, however, these observations are necessarily of a preliminary nature. B. Positive aspects 9. The Committee takes note of the fact that Equatorial Guinea is a party to numerous human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its first Optional Protocol; the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol; the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and many of the fundamental conventions on labour rights of the International Labour Organization (ILO). 10. The Committee also takes note of the following: (a) The adoption of the Education Act; (b) The adoption of the National Plan on Education for All and the Educational Development Programme for Equatorial Guinea; (c) The adoption of a national programme to educate women and teenage girls who are illiterate or who have dropped out of school; and 2 GE.12-48675