A/HRC/42/4 vulnerable families and groups, and the Action Plan for Supporting Entrepreneurial Women 2014–2020. 8. Support services for victims of domestic violence had been improved, in line with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), through the establishment of the National Centre and Counselling Line for Victims of Domestic Violence and emergency centres in some municipalities, as well as the first crisis management centre for victims of sexual violence. 9. Albania had adopted Law No. 18/2017 on the rights and protection of the child, which extended the scope of children’s rights, with a focus on strengthening the system of protection of children from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect. Law No. 121/2016 on social care services also had a focus on the support and empowerment of children. Albania had started transforming its residential social care institutions into alternative services, through foster care and the establishment of multifunctional centres, and had compiled a policy document for the deinstitutionalization of the residential social care system and a three-year action plan for that purpose. Measures had also been taken for parental rehabilitation, with the aim of returning children to their families. A “baby bonus”, a cash payment for every newborn child, had been introduced at the start of 2019. 10. Albania had adopted the Code of Criminal Justice for Children aimed at the protection of children in contact and conflict with the law. Under Law No. 18/2017 on the rights and protection of the child, children under the age of criminal responsibility were considered as children in need of special protection. In addition, amendments to the Criminal Code and a decision of the Council of Ministers of 2019 included harsher punitive measures for child abusers, including those responsible for the online abuse of children. 11. A national action plan for the protection of children from economic exploitation, including children in street situations, had been drafted and procedures had been adopted to identify and assist economically abused children and children in street situations. 12. Albania had also made amendments to the law on civil status, addressing the causes of non-registration at birth and statelessness, and empowering courts to regulate the registration of Albanian children coming from other countries with incorrect data. The establishment of an electronic register had enabled the immediate registration of newborns in the hospital. 13. Albania had significantly improved its legal framework for the protection of minorities by adopting a specific law on national minorities in 2017. The secondary legislation was now under preparation. The law provided for the collection of data on persons belonging to national minorities, based on the right to self-identification, the documentation of the Civil Registry and the legislation on the protection of personal data. The law guaranteed the right of individuals to declare whether they belonged to a national minority. Albania would further revise its domestic legislation, including the legislation on the census, in line with the European standards. The next population and housing census would be conducted in 2020. The draft law on the census provided, among others, for the inclusion of questions about ethnic origin, religion and language, with responses to be based on a free and non-mandatory declaration and the option not to respond to the question. 14. In 2018 decisions had been adopted concerning education in minority languages, the promotion of the culture, history, language and religion of national minorities in education and the organization and functioning of the Committee for National Minorities. Persons belonging to national minorities, in self-government units where they lived traditionally or in substantial numbers, could be taught in their minority language. The responsible institutions had prepared a draft decision establishing a threshold of 15 pupils for the opening of a minority class in places where national minorities lived traditionally or constituted over 20 per cent of the population of the administrative unit. In such places, persons belonging to national minorities had the right to use their language in interactions with the administrative authorities in the self-governing units, when relevant conditions permitted and there was sufficient demand. 3