111 Consequently, the policy is guided by the Constitution, The Local Government Act 1998, the Gender Equality Act and the Labour Relations Act and the National Gender Policy. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2015 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS AND ARTICLES OF THE CHARTER 112 We now present to the Commission, an update on the 2015 Concluding Observations and Recommendations, and the progress made on implementation of the Articles of the Charter. Article 1-Ratification and Domestication of International Instruments 113 Malawi is a dualistic system in so far as applicability of international human rights instruments is concerned. Any international agreement ratified by Malawi only forms part of the law of the Republic if so provided by an Act of Parliament. This therefore entails that once an international treaty has been ratified and Malawi seeks to incorporate the same into domestic law, the incorporation will be done through either transformation of the international agreement into national legislation, or by having an Act of Parliament with a clause or clauses domesticating the treaty. Examples of laws that have domesticated international instruments during the reporting period are provided above and include: Trafficking in Persons Act 2015, the Marriage Divorce and Family Relations Act 2015, Access to Information Act 2016, the HIV/AIDS (Prevention and Management) Act, and the Constitutional Amendment Act of 2017 which raised the age of child from 16 to 18. 114 Since submitting its initial report, Malawi has acceded to the Protocol to the African Charter on the Values and Principles of Public Service and Administration in 2014, and the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 2017. Although the Protocol has not been domesticated, Malawi has a Public Service Charter (MPSC) which was adopted as a framework to introduce service charters in all public institutions and guide those institutions in taking such legislative, regulatory, technical and practical measures as may be required to create effective conditions for the proper functioning of the public service and to ensure that public services are available, accessible and acceptable. The MPSC is founded on the principles of equality of treatment, neutrality, legality and continuity. This coupled with the code of 32