A/HRC/38/13 further expanding the jurisdiction of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms. Media campaigns to raise awareness of discriminatory behaviours were also being implemented. 9. Violence against women and children remained a serious challenge. The main task in that area was to ensure a timely and appropriate multidisciplinary response to victims and to address existing shortcomings in the application of the relevant national legislation. 10. In the area of children’s rights, Montenegro had amended the Criminal Code to ensure closer compliance with the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, and with the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Montenegro had also adopted its first Strategy for the Prevention and Protection of Children against Violence, and was in the process of drafting the new National Action Plan for Children for the period 2018–2022. 11. Montenegro was working to establish a mechanism for determining statelessness, pass a new Law on Foreigners, and recognize the status of stateless persons, who would be given the possibility to exercise their rights in line with the conventions ratified by the country. 12. Despite the initiatives taken by Montenegro, persons with disabilities were still exposed to social marginalization and there was a need to further strengthen the capacities of relevant institutions and provide them with adequate resources. Under the Law on Social and Child Welfare, day-care centres had been established as a support service for life in the community. 13. Montenegro had made visible progress in developing an adequate legislative and institutional framework on minority rights. Within that context, a new strategy for the period 2017–2019 had been adopted in order to find a permanent solution for refugees and displaced persons from the former Yugoslavia. Specific measures had been introduced to promote the integration of the Roma and Egyptian populations into the educational system, such as a preparatory kindergarten for children not covered by formal education and a campaign for their enrolment in the first year of primary school. 14. Montenegro had been cooperating with international human rights mechanisms, which had resulted in its candidacy for membership of the Human Rights Council for the period 2022–2024. 15. Montenegro thanked all the countries that had submitted advance questions, indicating that efforts were under way to develop a national mechanism for reporting and monitoring the implementation of the universal periodic review recommendations. Montenegro had been selected as a pilot country for the establishment of an OHCHR database to facilitate such monitoring. 16. A strategy to investigate war crimes was being implemented in order to address impunity for such crimes. Searches of unprotected databases of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 were being made in order to collect evidence on preliminary stage cases of war crimes and to gather evidence for possible new cases. In 2015, Montenegro had adopted the Law on Reparation to Victims of Crimes of Violence, under which some €5.7 million had already been paid out. 17. Montenegro had improved its legislative framework to combat human trafficking and was implementing the Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy 2012–2018. In order to improve the identification of potential victims, an operational team for combating trafficking in human beings was in the process of being established. 18. With regard to freedom of expression, a new commission had been created in 2016 to monitor the actions of the competent authorities in investigating cases of threats and violence against journalists, the killing of journalists, and attacks on media assets. Statistics from 2017 confirmed that Montenegro was not a country in which recorded violence against the media could be characterized as a systemic problem. 19. Awareness-raising campaigns were being run to eradicate the practices of early and forced marriage, which were still dominant among the Roma and Egyptian populations. The selective abortion of female fetuses was not permitted. However, as private health 3