A/HRC/37/12 10. In respect of racial profiling, the training given to police officers included modules on human rights, ethics and racial discrimination. Checks and arrests were supervised and there were complaints mechanisms that could be used if a police officer was involved in racist aggression. 11. In the area of migration, Switzerland offered good conditions to migrants in a regular situation, as well as the necessary protection for refugees. In 2016, a new asylum law had been adopted to speed up individual asylum proceedings and to give asylum seekers better legal protection by establishing the right to free legal advice and representation. 12. The use of force during deportations had evolved since 2015 and it was no longer systematic practice to use restraints on deportees. Since 2012, all deportations by air had been observed by the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture. 13. On human trafficking, Switzerland had adopted a new national action plan for the period 2017–2020. In 2017, it had ratified the 2014 Protocol to the ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and it had taken part in police coordination and cooperation on human trafficking in the framework of the European Police Office (Europol) and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). 14. The rules governing the relationship between the Church and the State were guided by the principle that the State protected not religions or religious communities but, rather, persons who were victims of discrimination on grounds of their religious affiliation. The Swiss authorities were active in the interreligious dialogue and in promoting religious tolerance. 15. The Government had included a guideline on equality between women and men in its legislative programme and its 2016–2019 sustainable development strategy. A revised version of the Equality Act, which called on employers to analyse the salaries they paid with the aim of evaluating any gaps, and a draft revision of the Companies’ Act, introducing quotas for the representation of women in leading positions in companies quoted on the stock exchange, were before Parliament. Combating domestic violence was a priority for the authorities at all levels. 16. In the area of the protection of children’s rights, the Swiss Criminal Code had been amended in 2014 to impose a maximum 3-year custodial sentence or a fine for paying for the sexual services of persons under the age of 18. Since July 2014, domestic violence against children was specifically included in the Civil Code among the reasons justifying the removal of parental authority, and the Criminal Code penalized attacks on the physical integrity or health of children or violence against them. 17. On the prevention of torture, while it did not contain a specific definition of torture, the Criminal Code described as a criminal offence any behaviour that could be qualified as an act of torture, including mental torture. 18. In the area of ethnic minorities, the Government had, at the beginning of 2017, approved the country’s fourth report on the implementation of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, which showed improvements in multilingualism in education. However, despite the measures taken to implement the Framework Convention in respect of the Yenish and Sinti populations, the number of stopping places and transit sites remained a subject of discussion. 19. In 2015, Roma organizations had submitted an application for the Swiss Roma to be recognized as a national minority and for Romani to be recognized as a minority language in the sense of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The criteria for recognition as a national minority under the Framework Convention given in the interpretative declaration made by Switzerland were currently being examined. 20. In recent years, several popular initiatives that touched on non-imperative norms of international public law had been accepted. However, in implementing them, the Federal Council and the Parliament had managed to take account of international requirements. The related discussions regularly led to intense political debate, which was not only proof of the GE.17-23483 3