II- PREPARATION OF INVESTIGATION MISSIONS OF THE AFRICAN COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS ON THE RIGHTS AND WELFARE OF THE CHILD. A. PRELIMINARY MISSION REPORT A preliminary Mission Report is a report that will be prepared prior to proceeding on a mission Article 8: Aim of the preliminary report 1. A preliminary mission report shall be prepared before each investigation mis- sion. 2. The aim of the preliminary report shall be to collect all available information on the country concerned in order to give an overview of the situation of the rights of the child in the country. Article 9: Substantial points of the preliminary report 1. The preliminary mission report should contain relevant information such as: a) the general situation of the country : political, economic, social, cultural and security issues; b) the country’s legal system’ c) the status of ratification of the major international instruments on human rights, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child concerning the Sale of children, Prostitution of Children and Pornography that displays children, the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child concerning the involvement of children in armed conflicts and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the status of the submission of the reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the African Committee. d) The status of ratification of the regional and sub-regional instruments of cooperation and development and also information on the accession of the country to the African Peer Review Mechanism of the NEPAD; 5