 It is my pleasure to be with you today for the first time in my capacity as an independent expert to celebrate this year's International Albinism Awareness Day under the theme United in Making Our Voice Heard. This theme was chosen to highlight the importance of including persons with albinism in the decisions and initiatives that affect them. It further highlights the positive work that have been done by albinism community worldwide who have had to face many hurdles in their quest for equality and to be protected against various forms of human rights violations. Yet despite the many accomplishments and progress we have made as a collective, many persons with albinism continue to be subjected to discrimination, stigmatization, exclusion and ritual attacks and killing that have taken far too many lives. These violations were exacerbated for many during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is a proportionately affected person with albinism who were already in adverse living conditions and some reports showed an increase in harmful practices and hateful crimes during the pandemic, particularly when lockdowns were in place. In spite of these grim realities, there have also been winds and many of you have been instrumental in pushing for positive change in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. We celebrate persons with albinism today because we have seen your resilience and hard work. We have seen a rise in the numbers of advocates and human rights defenders with albinism, many of whom have formed civil society organizations when they saw the need for agents of change. Many of you have tirelessly worked to tackle the root causes that have resulted in discrimination and killings of persons with albinism, including combating dangerous myths with education and awareness campaigns, advocating for improved access to adequate healthcare services and resources, ensuring reasonable accommodation is provided in classrooms and workspaces to improve the chances of persons with albinism to obtain a sustainable means of living. I am so pleased to see an increase in the number of persons with albinism being trained with skills and tools to improve your capacity to advocate for positive changes in your communities and countries. We hope to see an increase in these skills and see more persons with albinism engage with regional and human rights mechanisms to ensure inclusion and impact in these peers too. I counted a privilege that through my mandate we can work together to ensure your voices are heard at the podiums of the Human Rights Council and General Assembly. It is your life stories and experiences that enrich the work of my mandate. Our resolve to make positive change requires us to strengthen the bridges we have built among the albinism movement, as well as with key partners including government, civil society organisations, regional and as well as international organisations. We need to build new bridges and stakeholders who have not been traditional partners in the past and ensure alliances are forged to achieve lasting positive changes. Lastly, unless we forget, we remember today many persons with albinism who have lost their lives due to preventable tragedies, whether through ritual attacks, skin cancer or as a result of discrimination which can manifest in a myriad of ways including bullying and ostratisation. Today I stand in solidarity with you in making your voice heard and in the quest to attain a more just and equitable world free of discrimination and violence for persons with albinism worldwide. I wish you all a happy International Albinism Awareness Day.