A/HRC/17/2 397. Austria was committed to ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as soon as possible and was preparing the submission to Parliament necessary for the ratification process. The crime of enforced disappearances would also be included in the Penal Code as a separate criminal offence, together with the specific crime of torture, in compliance with the Convention against Torture. The respective amendments of the Criminal Code were being prepared. 398. Austria had also accepted a number of recommendations with regard to the full realization of the rights of minorities. In this regard, a historic breakthrough had been reached with regard to bilingual topographical signs in Carinthia. The memorandum, which was signed on 26 April 2011 by representatives of the Federal Government, the Provincial Government of Carinthia and the three Slovene minority organizations in Carinthia, reflected a broad-based solution on bilingual road signs that contained several elements, namely that existing bilingual road signs would remain (regardless of the percentage of minority population), that all decisions of the Constitutional Court on bilingual road signs would be implemented and that new bilingual road signs would be put up in municipalities with a minority population of at least minimum 17.5 per cent of the total. 399. The use of the minority language as an official language was principally provided for in all those municipalities with bilingual topographical signs; a constitutional law thereon was about to be submitted to Parliament. An important part of the compromise solution agreed upon was the Federal Government’s commitment to allocate additional funds, in addition to the existing financial support accorded to ethnic groups, to promote the bilingual educational system in Carinthia, the local culture and bilingual and multilingual projects. The federal Government would also allocate special funds to the private Slovene music school in Carinthia and contribute to a sustainable solution to assure its future. 400. Austria had accepted recommendations to amend its provisions against incitement to hatred, attacks on minority groups and for equal protection of all religious minorities. A Government bill had already been transmitted to Parliament. Austria was firmly committed to combating discrimination, xenophobia and racism and to strengthening measures for the integration of immigrants into Austrian society. The Government of Austria had established a new State secretariat for integration, which had raised the awareness of governmental policies on integration, and had also set the ground for a more effective implementation of the national plan of action for integration, which provided for a number of integration measures in different areas, including concrete measures to combat racism and discrimination. Austria therefore did not see the need to elaborate another and separate plan of action on racism, as the focus was rather on implementing concrete measures. 401. Neither was Austria envisaging the drafting of a general human rights plan of action. The Government was convinced that existing thematic plans of action were more focused and therefore more effective in combating concrete human rights deficiencies. 402. Having only recently introduced a civil partnership for same-sex couples, no further legislative changes with regard to the adoption of children by same-sex couples were currently envisaged. However, a legal case on a similar issue was currently pending in the European Court for Human Rights. 403. Austria would submit in due course a mid-term or interim update on the implementation of universal periodic review recommendations. 2. Views expressed by Member and observer States of the Human Rights Council on the review outcome 404. Algeria congratulated Austria on its election as a new State Member of the Human Rights Council, and noted its acceptance of 131 of 160 recommendations. Algeria took positive note of Austria’s willingness to implement measures to ensure gender equality in 144 GE.12-13630