A/71/206 End Child Marriage in Africa, as well as the Model Law to end child marriage in Southern Africa, 6 which will be of crucial importance to advancing implementation of target 5.3. 73. Developed by the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum, the Model Law has the potential to inform action to end child marriage. This is an area where incremental progress is being achieved, for example with recent legislative developments in the Gambia and the United Republic of Tanzania. In 2015, Malawi adopted the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act, which raised the minimum age of marriage to 18 years. The social mobilization around that process and the important partnership developed with traditional leaders helped to raise awareness of the new law and achieve important results, including a landmark initiative led by a female traditional chief that resulted in the initial annulment of 330 child marriages in a single district and since then has broken up 850 child marriages and banned the sexual initiation of girls. 74. Advocacy efforts and policy discussions promoted by the Special Representative at the international level and important resolutions adopted by the Human Rights Council 7 and by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 8 have led to significant results over the past year in promoting the rights of persons with albinism, including their protection from violence. This includes the decision of the General Assembly to proclaim 13 June as International Albinism Awareness Day to raise awareness with regard to persons with albinism and the appointment of an Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism. 75. This topic will figure prominently in the Seventh International Policy Conference on the African Child, to be hosted by the African Child Policy Forum in Addis Ababa in November 2016. The Conference will focus on the protection of children from violence, with a special emphasis on criminal acts of violence against children, and will count on the participation of African Heads of State and Government; civil society, religious and traditional leaders from across the region; leading experts on children’s rights; academic institutions; the media; and children and young people. 76. In Latin America, the Special Representative joined a session of MERCOSUR devoted to the protection of children from violence and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Member States welcomed the High Time to End Violence against Children initiative, which is being mainstreamed into the regional strategy of follow-up to the United Nations study recommendations, and reiterated the urgency of investing in the prevention of violence, including by addressing its root causes and overcoming attitudes and behaviour that condone violence against children. 77. In the context of her collaboration with the Permanent Committee of the “Niñ@sur” Initiative of MERCOSUR and the Global Movement for Children in __________________ 6 7 8 16-12906 See www.girlsnotbrides.org/sadc-model-law-one-step-closer-to-ending-child-marriage-insouthern-africa. See Human Rights Council resolutions 23/13 on attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism, 24/33 on technical cooperation for the prevention of attacks against persons with albinism and 26/10 on International Albinism Awareness Day. See also the OHCHR report on persons with albinism (A/HRC/24/57). See resolution 263 of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the prevention of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism. 15/23