financial assistance with delegate's stays in Geneva. Treaties Switzerland has ratified many human rights treaties. These include the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is in complement to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Domestic enforcement of human rights Despite any possible difficulties that can arise from the federal, canton nature of Switzerland as a State the country allows for any international treaty that is ratified immediately and automatically becomes enforceable as national law, without the need to individually assess and implement international mechanisms manually. This is useful in Switzerland's plight to increase the human rights standards of the country. The Federal Constitution of Switzerland lists dignity and equality as paramount, which is evident in the application of a number of federal legislations. Human rights defenders Switzerland is a supporting nation of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, recognising the importance of the Defenders in the international application of human rights, and the pressures these individuals and groups put on states to improve their national commitment to human rights. Switzerland has implemented and seeks to standardise the Swiss Guidelines on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in efforts to protect defenders internally and on rights-driven missions to other nation states. Children's rights Switzerland ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1997 and has continued to enhance children's rights since. In 2011, the Federal Social Insurance Office began a program to protect youth from violence, and another for the education of and protection from the media. Complementary to this, nationwide organisations such as the Pro Juventute Foundation and the Swiss Foundation for Child Protection are active in working with victims of child abuse of many kinds. Internationally, Switzerland is signed to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, which criminalises sexual acts against children in all of its signed countries. Regardless of the