A/HRC/21/20 of the mandatory training for civil servants when it drew up guidelines on education and training for civil servants for 2010-2011. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden noted measures taken to expand human rights training for public officials as a result of Sweden’s two national action plans for human rights. In Japan, relevant ministries and agencies are required to ensure training for public officers, as provided in the 2002 Basic Plan for Human Rights Education and Encouragement, and amended in 2011 by the Act for the Promotion of Human Rights Education and Encouragement. The National Personnel Authority offers a human rights curriculum in various training programmes for national public officers and instructs each ministry and agency to improve its human rights training. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds human rights seminars and lectures for new recruits and current officials, as does the Local Autonomy College. 29. The Human Rights Public Sector Education Programme in Australia enables public-sector officials to understand human rights obligations, strengthens their capacity to develop policies, programmes and legislation consistent with human rights and guides administrative decision makers on relevant human rights issues. The 2011 general human rights training programme for the Australian public sector involved 706 public-sector officials from 35 departments and was delivered in partnership with the Australian Centre for Human Rights Education and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. A human rights e-learning module will be disseminated among 200,000 public servants throughout Australia. The programme’s resources include a guide to human rights for Australian public servants and human rights guidance sheets.7 Romania’s National Agency of Civil Servants has provided training in the principles of non-discrimination and equal opportunities to 12,493 civil servants. The Ecuadorian National Institute of Higher Education, with the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and Worship, has delivered an initial course on human rights for civil servants, which reached 30 civil servants from several State institutions, including the armed forces. 30. Croatia has included human rights training courses in specialized university curricula for public and civil servants. In Switzerland, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs offers a two-day human rights course to staff and interns of the federal administration. A two-week intensive course on human rights and gender issues is an integral part of the training for the personnel of the Swiss Expert Pool for Civilian Peacebuilding, whom Switzerland deploys to international peace missions. 31. General vocational training for employees of State administration and Government service, programmed annually by the Human Resource Management Service of the Government of Serbia, introduces civil servants to notions of equal opportunities for all and gender equality, to the laws on civil servants and on the prohibition of discrimination, and to the Code of Conduct for Civil Servants. With UNICEF support, the Ministry of Health improved education of medical staff working with children and families in health institutions and focused on protecting children from abuse and neglect. The World Bank supported a project for training medical workers in the field of patients’ rights. 32. In France, the 2008 Charter for the Promotion of Equality in the Civil Service affirms the values guiding civil service: equality, secularism, neutrality, impartiality and non-discrimination. In 2011, awareness-raising took place for all ministries on the theme of professional equality between men and women in the civil service. Themes for the 2012 inservice training include the role of values in public service, rights and duties of civil servants, codes of conduct and the principles of neutrality and non-discrimination. As regards local government officials, France reported on the coordination, by the French National Commission for UNESCO, of the French network of the International Coalition of 7 See www.ag.gov.au/humanrightseducation. 9