 Growing up with albinism in Nigeria was a painful paradox. On the one hand, I received love and care at home from my family. On the other hand, I was living in a society that was generally hostile to people with albinism. I was very aware that I was different from a young age and that the difference was not a good thing in the society. My childhood memories are a mixed bag of the pain that society can cause when they don't understand a condition, but also the power a family can have when they choose to love a child unconditionally. I took the job as an independent expert on albinism because I felt that I could make a difference. I felt that I could serve other people with albinism, that I had acquired enough skills and enough life experiences to understand with compassion. Every day I stand up for people with albinism doing the most basic things such as writing Twitter messages or Facebook messages, raising awareness to the most complex things including doing research or moving partners to get involved or trying to solve problems or respond to reports of attacks. Since I took up the mandate at the UN Human Rights Council, there has been some positive things on one hand. Awareness has really exponentially increased on this issue. And more recently, I would say since the mandate got involved, the visibility of the issue has really increased. More specifically though, from official country visits, there has been some really remarkable changes. For example in Malawi, they have passed laws to reinforce the protection for people with albinism. For example, they have passed laws that protect against trafficking in body parts and not just trafficking in humans and organs, which is usually the laws that you have. So they have tried to fill in that gap. They have also tried to launch some programs in awareness raising involving the police. There has also been partnerships because I see myself as a mandate of implementation and of building partnerships for the cause. There has been a series of partnerships, many of them too long to mention here that has come out of a lot of negotiations through this mandate. So I am very optimistic that this is only the beginning of many good things to come. If I had a magic wand and I could change anything, I would put in people's minds the equal dignity and equal rights of every other person so that treatment can be equal and the fundamental rights of people can be respected. I would like to invite everybody to stand up for someone's rights today.