A/HRC/12/50 education, health care, employment, as well as to the elimination of acts of discrimination, ethnically motivated violence, and ill-treatment by law enforcement authorities towards the Roma. Slovakia considered this set of recommendations very complex and requiring huge financial resources, effort and cooperation of all involved, and noted that solutions were not imminent but would materialize in the future. 640. The delegation stressed that Slovakia had accepted 79 recommendations without any reservation, had not accepted nine recommendations, and supported three recommendations with reservations. 641. Slovakia noted that it could not accept recommendation 9, which called for the adoption of a comprehensive legal instrument that would recognize the rights of persons belonging to minority groups and would offer necessary protection, especially to children. Slovakia attached great importance to the protection of minority groups, including children. The rights of persons belonging to national minorities were guaranteed by the Constitution and other existing legal norms. Slovakia deemed this framework sufficient and did not foresee any new legal instrument. 642. Similarly, recommendation 11 proposed the development of more legislative guarantees aimed at achieving full compliance with the provisions of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The delegation stated that the existing legislative guarantees were sufficient. The Council of the Government for National and Ethnic Minorities had reviewed the current periodical reports on the implementation of these two conventions without requesting any additional measures. 643. With regard to recommendation 14 calling for the formulation and implementation of a national plan of action on the protection of civil rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons, the delegation drew attention to the plan of action for the prevention of all forms of discrimination, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance, which was a comprehensive document pertaining also to the rights of those persons. 644. Slovakia did not accept recommendations 67 to 69 and underlined that forced sterilization had never been an official State policy or an officially endorsed practice, and that therefore the Government could not take any political responsibility. The accusations of forced sterilizations of Roma women in Eastern Slovakia had elicited an immediate reaction from the Government, which initiated a criminal prosecution against unidentified offenders for the criminal offence of genocide. In 2003, the criminal prosecution was stopped, as it was apparent that the act for which the criminal prosecution had been undertaken had not taken place. In this connection, the legislation on health care was revisited, and Act No. 576 of 2004 stipulated the conditions necessary for sterilization, and institutionalized “informed consent” as a precondition for sterilization. 645. Slovakia did not accept recommendation 72, which called for enacting and implementing new legislative norms in order to put an end to discriminatory practices against Roma in the educational process. The School Act of 2008 and the Antidiscrimination Act provided equal conditions for all children with regard to access to education. The School Act accentuated equal access to education and training and the prohibition of all forms of discrimination and segregation as the main principles of training and education. The delegation considered that, for the time being, the above-mentioned legal framework was sufficient. 646. Slovakia did not accept recommendations 75 to 76 proposing working out and implementing a strategy for addressing the disproportionate enrolment of Roma children in special schools. The delegation stated that the School Act provided clear criteria for enrolling children in specialized schools or classes, and clearly defined and distinguished between children and students with special educational needs, handicaps, disabilities, or feeble 161