A/HRC/7/19/Add.3 page 9 implementation of projects developed by Government institutions at the national or local level; and assessing the adequacy of existing legislation and proposing new laws. The role of the Ombudsman is thus not only reactive; he is entrusted with the power to take the initiative to investigate possible cases of racism and discrimination. 25. In his meeting with the Ombudsman, the Special Rapporteur was informed that although his office does not receive a large number of complaints of discrimination, this number has been steadily increasing (64 complaints in 2006 and 67 complaints from January-August 2007). 26. A particular form of action carried out by the Ombudsman is to review cases of racist crimes in order to analyse whether the racist connotation is being considered and registered by the police. The Ombudsman explained that there used to be important obstacles to the categorization and prosecution of racially motivated crimes, which led in most instances to the qualification of these crimes as acts of hooliganism. However, in the Ombudsman’s view this problem was solved in 2006 after the adoption of amendments to the Criminal Code clearly stipulating racial crimes. 27. The Office of the Ombudsman receives a limited number of complaints regarding citizenship regulations (17 from January-August 2007). However, the Ombudsman informed the Special Rapporteur that there are elements of the legislation on citizenship that can be improved, including regulations for automatic citizenship for all children born in Latvia and facilitating the procedure for elderly residents. 28. The overall perception of the Ombudsman is that Latvia has made important advances in the progressive transposition of EU directives, notwithstanding the difficulties in the realm of access to goods and services. He noted that racial discrimination is a recent problem in Latvia, connected to new waves of migration that are likely to expand, and therefore will require concerted efforts for the future. 3. Citizenship legislation 29. Citizenship policy in Latvia after the restoration of independence was based on the doctrine of legal continuity of the Latvian State. According to this principle, the end of the Soviet occupation did not create a new State, but rather restored a previously existing State whose independence was interrupted by forcible annexation into the USSR. In this regard, the first steps after the end of occupation were to restore the Latvian political and legal framework, including the Constitution that existed in 1940. 30. The policy after the restoration of independence was to recognize as citizens only those persons who enjoyed citizenship prior to 1940 and their direct descendants. For all others, no regulations were in place, which left some 740,000 persons, mostly Russian-speaking, without citizenship of Latvia or any other State, and thus stateless.1 A large number of citizenship requests by Russian-speaking residents were denied due to claims of links to the Soviet army. 1 Under international law, a stateless person is generally defined as a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.