A/HRC/32/7 15. Estonia took steps to promote tolerance and cultural diversity. Incitement to hatred, violence or discrimination was criminalized. Further improvement of the Criminal Code was envisaged. Additionally, Estonia had been continually tackling those issues through education. The general education programme for the period 2016–2019 included specific activities on human rights. Estonia had also joined the “No hate speech” initiative of the Council of Europe. 16. The delegation expressed the commitment of Estonia to promoting gender equality. The empowerment of women and their equal rights remained one of the priorities of development cooperation of Estonia. The Government had adopted the second action plan for the period 2015-2019 on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security to improve the situation of women in conflict areas. 17. Estonia was in the process of preparing its first action plan on equality policies, including gender equality, for the period 2016–2023 in order to promote the equal participation of women in decision-making at all levels. A set of activities in various areas was envisaged to reduce the pay gap. The Government had taken special measures to address gender stereotypes as a root cause of gender inequality in general, and the gender pay gap in particular. For example, in 2013 an awareness-raising campaign had been carried out to tackle gender stereotypes. The Gender Equality Act provided legal guarantees for equal treatment of men and women in vocational education and professional training opportunities. The Government paid special attention to ensuring equal employment opportunities for men and women in institutions of higher education. The mandate of the labour inspectorate was broadened to include scrutinizing the implementation of the legal requirement of equal pay. 18. Combating domestic violence, violence against women and trafficking in persons remained a priority. Thus, the Government continued to implement, inter alia, awareness-raising campaigns and provide training and seminars for the police, prosecutors and judges. 19. The Registered Partnership Act, which had entered into force in January 2016, legalized same-sex partnership. The adoption of relevant acts for its implementation was planned for 2016. 20. The Ombudsman for Children had been established in 2011, and its duties were assigned to the Chancellor of Justice. Estonia had initiated a process of establishing an independent monitoring mechanism to implement the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, right after becoming a party to the Convention. Estonia had taken measures to reform the social welfare framework for persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. 21. The establishment of a national human rights institution remained under consideration by the Government. No new institution might be established, given several objective factors. The Chancellor of Justice, which was an independent institution with a mandate to receive complains and oversee the application of international human rights norms in Estonia, had been covering most of the functions of such an institution in compliance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the “Paris Principles”). B. Interactive dialogue and responses by the State under review 22. During the interactive dialogue, 73 delegations made statements. Recommendations made during the dialogue are to be found in section II of the present report. 5