any way detract from the rights protected by the Charter and other human rights instruments to which the State is a party. 66. With regard to the allegation of violation of the minimum age of marriage, the Respondent State maintains that the established rules must not eclipse social, cultural and religious realities; that the distinction contained in Article 2g1 of the Family Code should not be seen as a lowering of the marriage age or a discrimination against girls, but should rather be regarded as a provision that is more in line with the realities in Mali; that it would serve no purpose to enact a legislation which would never be implemented or would be difficult to implement to say the least; that the law should be in harmony with sociocultural realities; that it would serve no useful purpose creating a gap between the two realities, especially as, according to the Respondent State, at the age of fifteen (15), the biological and psychologicat conditions of marriage are in place, and this, in all objectivity, without taking sides in terms of the stance adopted by certain lslamist circles. 67. The Respondent State in conclusion asserts that the question is not that of violation of international obligations or maintenance of practices that should be discouraged but rather that of adapting the said obligations to social realities and that for these reasons, the Applicants' argument should be dismissed as unfounded. 68. ln their Reply, the Applicants argued that by ratifying the Charter, the Maputo Protocol and the Children's Charter, the Respondent State committed itself fully to the relevant instruments; that the threats generated by the protests cannot justify derogation from the commitments imposed on it as a State party to the said instruments. 69. Concerning the minimum age for marriage, the Applicants submit that the limitations on which the Respondent State relies to exempt itself from its international obligations are not permitted under Article 6(b) of the Maputo Protocolwhich, without exemption, sets the minimum age of marriage for girls at eighteen (18) )--- 4 16 g I&-