III. Main areas of concern and recommendations

B. General principles (arts. 2, 3, 6 and 12)

Non-discrimination

26. The Committee welcomes the amendment to the Criminal Law, on 1 June 2007, on violation of the prohibition of discrimination and the provisions on non-discrimination in the Education Law, the Medical Treatment Law and the Law on the Rights of Patients. The Committee is, however, concerned about continuing discrimination against children with disabilities, children belonging to minorities, including Roma children, and children living in rural areas, with regard to their access to adequate health and education facilities. It is also concerned about the lack of official information on discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children and on reported incidents of bullying against those children in schools.

27. The Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure the application, in practice, of the different laws prohibiting discrimination, including by conducting awareness-raising programmes on the prohibition of discrimination and associated penalties, paying particular attention to children with disabilities and children belonging to minorities, including Roma children;

(b) Ensure that children living in rural areas have access to adequate health and education facilities;

(c) Conduct studies on discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children and strengthen its efforts to combat negative attitudes and eliminate discrimination against children on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.

Link to full text of the report: Concluding Observations-CRC-Latvia-2016-eng

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