A/HRC/35/5 have significantly contributed to eliminating the practice, either by declaring as unconstitutional any provisions of laws on child marriage, 3 or by issuing protection orders as preventive measures for persons at risk. However, frequently, inadequate knowledge and application of the legislation by the judiciary represents an obstacle. In many places, the judiciary does not consistently apply constitutional or human rights guarantees to protect girls and women from child and forced marriage. In some contexts, the justice system is negligent in enforcing the law on child marriage within minority communities, such as the Roma community, on the pretext of respect for cultural practices. The need to assess judges’ knowledge of national and international legislation on child and forced marriage prior to their confirmations was stressed as a good practice to address this obstacle. 14. Experts stressed how genuine and meaningful participation of stakeholders in lawmaking is inadequate. Legislation planned and implemented in a participatory and inclusive manner has the potential to capture the complex multifaceted nature of child marriage and better respond to the rights and needs of women and girls. For instance, involving girls at the outset of legislative initiatives and using them as transformative agents to challenge harmful laws have brought positive outcomes in Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Kenya, as a constitutional requirement, public participation in law-making has allowed the involvement of influential actors into the drafting of the Child Marriage Act. To ensure a broad participation, mobilization should take place both at the national and grass-roots levels and involve different types of influencers and actors in the discussions, including researchers, politicians, judges and human rights activists. 15. The role of national human rights institutions in monitoring the existence of an adequate legal framework and its enforcement was stressed. The 2014 Kathmandu Call for Action to End Child Marriage supports monitoring the efforts of national human rights institutions to promote accountability for violations of rights resulting from child marriage. 16. Experts stressed the importance of subregional and regional policies and approaches to guide legislative efforts in the area of child and forced marriage. 17. More research on the issue of preventing the child and forced marriage of women and girls with dual nationality was needed, as well as more emphasis on how to protect the rights of girls in “informal unions”. The need to monitor the impact of legislation in rural and urban areas was mentioned, including the actual capacities of girls and women to gain access to legal remedies. III. Impact of existing policy measures 18. Experts referred to recent global and regional efforts to address child, early and forced marriage, including the African Union Campaign to End Child Marriage and the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Children’s Fund Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage. 4 These programmes have encouraged the adoption of national policies and strategies. While the programmes are relatively new, there have been some efforts to assess their impact, for example, in countries such as Chad, the Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Nepal, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 19. A number of lessons have been learned from developing and implementing strategies on child and forced marriage. In general, they have led to clear progress in breaking taboos about the issues and garnering support for greater political will and civil society mobilization. 20. The process adopted in the development of national strategies, plans and policies has proved to have had a considerable impact on the relevance of their content and the chances of their successful impact. Strategies should be informed by mapping of hotspots and 3 4 4 In July 2016, the High Court of the United Republic of Tanzania ruled that laws allowing boys and girls to marry at different ages, specifically allowing girls to marry under 18 years of age, were discriminatory and unconstitutional. Available from www.unicef.org/protection/57929_92681.html.