A/HRC/26/10 awareness-raising campaigns. The National Strategy and Action Plan on Roma had led to progress for them in education, housing, health and employment. It made recommendations. 48. Côte d’Ivoire commended the ratification of international instruments, cooperation with the United Nations human rights mechanisms, the strengthening of the judicial and penitentiary systems and efforts by the Commission for Protection against Discrimination. It took note of policies on human trafficking, freedom of expression, and promotion of tolerance and religious diversity. It made recommendations. 49. Croatia commended actions taken to implement recommendations from the first UPR cycle. It enquired about concrete measures taken to strengthen judicial independence and efficiency and about the impact of new legislation on the backlog of cases. Commending the prioritization of inter-ethnic relations and protection against discrimination, it enquired about concrete measures taken to guarantee the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identities of all communities. 50. The delegation of the State under review pointed out that the International Coordinating Committee for National Human Rights Institutions had awarded “B” status to the Ombudsman in 2011 and had made recommendations that would assist it in achieving an upgrade to “A” status. Those recommendations mainly related to expanding its mandate to encompass promotional activities and improving the procedure for the election of the Ombudsman’s deputies. Draft amendments to the legislation on the Ombudsman had been prepared and would be sent to the Government by April 2014. 51. The Intersectoral Commission for Human Rights included independent institutions such as the Ombudsman and the Commission for Protection against Discrimination as well as ministries. It dealt comprehensively with human rights and with the recommendations of international bodies, such as those of the treaty bodies and UPR. 52. The delegation referred to the attention being given to addressing the problems of the Roma community and provided further details of relevant activities. Education was a priority and the inclusion of Roma children in pre-school education was considered to be particularly important. Each year around 450 children had been enrolled in pre-school education free of charge and it was also considered important that they were not segregated but attended together with the other children. The number of first grade Roma pupils increased by 8 per cent between 2005 and 2013. Another programme provided financial incentives for Roma parents to keep their children in secondary school. Roma information centres had been established in 12 municipalities with large Roma populations. Sixteen Roma health mediators had been employed in 8 municipalities. Recent results included assistance in the form of counselling on healthy lifestyles, access to health insurance and the identification of children who had not been immunized. The relevant ministries had coordinated to create groups which reached out to Roma communities to identify persons whose birth had not been registered and assist them in obtaining documentation. 53. The delegation stated that, following the adoption of LAPD, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy had prepared the National Strategy on Equality and Non-Discrimination (2012-2015). It was being implemented through projects such as the training of some 600 State officials and civil society partners in identifying and combating discrimination; that training would be completed in April 2014. The delegation stated that the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy had prepared the National Strategy on Equality and Nondiscrimination, 2012-2015. Implementation activities included strengthening the capacities of the Ministry and relevant partners, in which up to 600 Government officials and civil society partners had been trained to identify and combat discrimination. An intersectoral group had also been established under the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and 9

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