A/HRC/14/6 violence, including protection against the commercial sexual exploitation of women, will soon be drafted. 16. The Government, with the collaboration of civil society, has embarked on an awareness-raising campaign aimed at discouraging female genital mutilation, and it is also providing alternative livelihood skills and assistance to circumcisers. A national coordinating committee and a coalition of non-governmental organizations have been established to address this issue. It requires huge financial and material resources which have posed a great challenge to Gambia. 17. The trafficking in women is addressed in the Trafficking in Persons Act of 2007, which seeks to prevent, suppress and punish those engaged in the trafficking in persons and to rehabilitate and reintegrate victims of trafficking. The National Action Plan is the blueprint for the effective implementation of the Act. Furthermore, the Government has provided resources for the establishment of an agency on the trafficking in persons, and the office will be operational by April 2010. 18. The 2005 Children’s Act prohibits child marriage. In addition, the Government uses community child protection committees to educate communities about this issue and encourage them to abandon harmful practices such as early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation. The Government has successfully intervened in several cases of early and forced marriage. 19. The Independent Electoral Commission is responsible for the conduct and supervision of the registration of voters for all public elections and the conduct and supervision of all public elections and referendums. It also ensures that candidates make a full declaration of their assets at the time of nomination and that they have equal access to the media and equal opportunity to campaign throughout the country. 20. With respect to the education of children, concrete steps have been taken to ensure that all schools are accessible to students within a radius of 3 km. The school system, including lower basic schools, upper basic schools and senior secondary schools, has increased fourfold over the past 14 years. The Government has invested much in the health sector. Policies and programmes have led to, inter alia, an increase in the number of State hospitals, satisfactory access to reproductive health services, a significant drop in HIV 1 prevalence and a decline in the infant mortality rate. 21. The Gambia is committed to considering requests from the special procedures of the Human Rights Council. 22. The lack of adequate human, financial and material resources, training and infrastructure has had a negative impact on the Gambia’s ability to effectively promote and protect human rights, as well as meet its reporting obligations under various human rights treaties. Institutions such as the police, prisons, the judiciary, the justice department and the education and health sectors are in need of technical and financial assistance. B. Interactive dialogue and responses by the State under review 23. During the interactive dialogue, 55 delegations made statements. 24. Senegal noted that the Gambia was party to several international human rights instruments, demonstrating its commitment to human rights, and also noted that the country hosted the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Citing constitutional provisions and various initiatives on the rights of persons with disabilities, Senegal asked when the Gambia would ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It called upon the Human Rights Council to support the Gambia in facing the challenges it had identified. 5