A/HRC/25/17 7. Malta continued its efforts to put the rights of the child at the top of its human rights agenda, and initiated policies and adopted legislation that extended the rights of the child. The delegation reiterated the Government’s intention to continue its efforts in protecting and promoting the rights of children. 8. On the occasion of the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, the Government signed a declaration calling for a comprehensive policy approach — at European Union level and across the European Union — on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) issues aiming at improving human rights and mainstreaming equality for LGBTI persons. 9. The delegation stated that the new Government was fully committed to the protection of the rights of LGBTI persons. A few weeks after being elected, the Government had reached an out-of-court (European Court of Human Rights) settlement with a transgender person who had previously been prevented from marrying by Maltese law. Subsequently, the Civil Code had been amended to allow persons who underwent a legally recognized gender change to be recognized in the new gender acquired, in those remaining areas where it was hitherto not acknowledged. With regard to same-sex relationships, the Government presented a bill in Parliament aimed at the legal recognition of same-sex couples and, once enacted, same-sex couples would be able to register their union and be granted equal marriage rights. The law would also provide for the recognition of civil marriages contracted by same-sex partners outside of Malta. 10. The drafting of the Civil Union Act was one of the tasks given to the newly founded Consultative Council on LGBTI rights, which was assigned to advise the Government and was made up of NGOs representing the LGBTI community. 11. The delegation stated that the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers in collaboration with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had been finalizing guidelines for the prevention, identification, intervention and follow-up of victims and perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence. 12. An amendment to the Criminal Code had been drafted in order to ensure that corporal punishment of any form on minors was considered a criminal offence. The amendment would expose the parent to criminal sanction in all cases of corporal punishment, irrespective whether it was minor or grave. The added “sanction” of deprivation of parental authority would also apply in the case of corporal punishment exceeding the bounds of reasonable chastisement. 13. The same Bill included amendments to the Criminal Code to provide for an increase in the age of criminal responsibility of minors from 9 to 14 years. Minors under the age of 16 would also be exempt from criminal responsibility if the minors acted without mischievous discretion. 14. Malta experienced a significant irregular migratory influx since 2002. The numbers remained consistently high over the past years. The situation posed considerable challenges for the country’s limited resources. The delegation stated that significant progress had been documented and yet Malta still faced difficulties. Therefore, the Government had repeatedly stressed a need for assistance from European Union member States, particularly via intra-European Union relocation. Assistance was received from some of those member States, as well as from the United States of America. 15. The overwhelming majority of irregular migrants arriving in Malta applied for asylum, which clearly demonstrated that the asylum system was accessible. The delegation referred to the UNHCR statistics of 2012 indicating that Malta received the largest number of asylum applications among the 44 industrialized countries, with 4.9 applications per 1,000 inhabitants. According to the UNHCR report, Malta received the largest number of 4