submit a citizenship application at the time of birth registration. The Commissioner urges the authorities to revisit this issue and initiate amendment of the Law on Citizenship in order to render the procedure entirely automatic. Pending such amendment, the Commissioner calls on the authorities to step up awareness raising and design effective communication strategies addressing “non-citizen” parents, with a view to ensuring that every child born in Latvia acquires nationality at birth. A considerable number of children in Latvia reside in institutions, which maintains them isolated from their peers and the rest of society. In 2013, the government adopted Guidelines for the development of social services for 2014-2020, and in June 2015 it developed an Action Plan for Deinstitutionalisation for 2015-2020. The Commissioner encourages the authorities to invigorate the stalled process of deinstitutionalisation and improve cooperation with municipalities to devise concrete measures to move the process forward. The authorities should prioritise alternative care in family-type settings rather than placing children in institutions, and allocate more resources to increase the engagement of guardians and foster carers. Special schools for children with disabilities have long existed in Latvia, and this practice has seldom been questioned due to prevailing views in society that such children are best educated in segregated settings. This approach contravenes the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Latvia has ratified. The Commissioner calls on the authorities to ensure the right to inclusive education in line with that Convention and relevant laws and strategies in the areas of development and education, and underscores the need to ensure that children with disabilities have access to mainstream schools close to their residence and benefit from support services. The authorities should invest in raising public awareness on this issue, and local authorities and educational establishments should devote attention to improving inclusion policies for children with disabilities. Human rights of LGBTI persons Following EU accession, Latvia has made some progress on anti-discrimination and the protection of human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) persons, notably through transposing into its national law the requirements of the EU Employment Directive 2000/78/EC, which includes sexual orientation as a prohibited ground of discrimination. However, the protection accorded to LGBTI persons in the Latvian legal system remains fragmentary, and there is a lack of public policies designed to promote the human rights of LGBTI persons in all spheres of life. The Commissioner encourages the authorities to address these gaps in a systematic manner by designing an action plan in cooperation with the Council of Europe. The Commissioner welcomes the improved policies to protect freedom of assembly and expression of LGBTI persons, as reflected in measures to protect gay pride events, such as the Europride 2015 held in Riga. Nevertheless, concerns remain about inadequate responses to homophobic and transphobic crime and hate speech. The amendments to the Criminal Law enacted in September 2014 redefined the provision on incitement to social hatred and enmity by providing an open-ended list of vulnerable groups. Furthermore, violating the prohibition against discrimination may be criminally sanctioned. The Commissioner recommends that sexual orientation and gender identity be explicitly included among the prohibited grounds for discrimination. In the meantime, he encourages the application of the existing legal framework with full consideration of the protection needs of LGBTI persons. The authorities are also urged to expand the list of aggravating circumstances in the Criminal Law by including homophobia and transphobia. Continuous trainings should be organised for the police, prosecutors and judges to ensure effective investigation, prosecution and punishment of hate crimes and hate speech against all vulnerable groups, including LGBTI persons. The Latvian legal regime provides only for marriage between men and women and does not envisage any type of registered partnership for same-sex or different-sex couples. The Commissioner invites the authorities to consider favourably the possibility of providing cohabiting different-sex and same-sex couples with legal means to address the practical problems related to the social reality in which they live. In this context, the authorities are encouraged to take into account the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights regarding protection of the relationships of cohabiting same-sex couples living in stable de facto partnerships. 2