A/HRC/38/43 Immigration and Refugee Board issued guidelines on the screening of asylum seekers involving sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression; in June 2017, Cambodia introduced a plan for a new school courses on LGBT issues and gender-based violence; and in Mongolia, in August 2017, law enforcement officers initiated a programme spearheaded by civil society to build capacities to investigate hate crimes. The same month, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Crown Prosecution Service extended its policy on hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender to cover biphobic offences. 75. Comprehensive actions in the field of education were taken, in Denmark in August 2017, with the launch of the LGBT plan of action aimed at preventing discrimination and providing equal opportunities, and in South Africa, where the Department of Basic Education adopted in March 2018 a plan of comprehensive sexuality education to help young people to make informed decisions about sexuality. 76. Acknowledgment of responsibility — the opposite of negation — is an essential element in the establishment of historical truth, the process of reparation and the reconstitution of the social fabric. The Independent Expert observes intense activity in this regard. For instance, on 6 July 2017, the Minister for Justice of New Zealand apologized to hundreds of men who had been convicted for consensual homosexual activity; on 7 November, the Prime Minister of Scotland apologized for “the hurt and the harm” caused by discriminatory laws; on 28 November 2017, the Prime Minister of Canada apologized for the State’s role in “systematic oppression, criminalization and violence” against the LGBT, queer and two-spirit communities from the 1950s to the early 1990s; and on 17 April 2018, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom expressed deep regret for the fact that discriminatory legislation had been introduced across the Commonwealth, and the resulting “legacy of discrimination, violence and even death that persists today”. The Independent Expert values these statements highly, in that they include both acknowledgment of the facts and acceptance of responsibility; he is persuaded that they will be valuable building blocks in the process of eradication of violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. 2. Law reform 77. Mirroring some of the above-mentioned processes of apology and other processes involving the establishment of historical truth and reparation, a number of reparative legislative measures have been adopted by parliaments around the world: legislation on expungement of unjust convictions was passed in July 2017 in Germany, including provision for compensation for convictions; in September 2017, the Upper House of Tasmania, in Australia, passed legislation to have offences involving homosexual activity and cross-dressing wiped from the records of persons convicted for them; in Canada, funds were earmarked to compensate government employees whose careers have been affected by persecution; 78 and on 27 April 2018, Sweden announced reparations for cases of forced sterilization in gender change procedures. 78. The adoption of legislative frameworks conducive to protecting persons from violence and discrimination is a fundamental step. In this regard, the mandate holder received information on the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination (in Canada, bill C-16 entered into force in June 2017 after receiving Royal Assent) and the prohibition of discriminatory acts based on sexual orientation or gender identity (in the Philippines, bill 4982 was approved in September by the House of Representatives). 79. In late 2017, legislation on gender identity was passed in Pakistan, after which an amendment eliminating the requirement of consent from a medical board was approved by the Senate on 7 March 2018 and is currently pending decision by the National Assembly. 79 In April, in Portugal, the legislative branch eliminated the need for medical certificates for young trans persons aged between 16 and 18 to change gender and name in official documents. 78 79 See https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2017/11/28/lgbtq2-agreement-principle. See www.senate.gov.pk/uploads/documents/1521612511_419.pdf. 17