(2017) 1 African Human Rights Yearbook 147 Charter. Investigative missions enable the Committee to directly gather information relevant for monitoring the implementation or violation of the Charter by States parties.124 The experience of the Committee in relation to investigative missions, while limited, still holds a lot of potential. The investigative mission undertaken to Tanzania on the situation of children with albinism in temporary holding shelters, the opportunity to engage with stakeholders, in particular government officials, and the report emanating from the mission has been central for advocacy.125 This investigative mission was requested by a civil society organisation, Under the Same Sun, and supported by other stakeholders in Tanzania and beyond, further underscoring the important role played by CSOs, UN agencies and national human rights institutions. Other promotional/investigative missions undertaken to South Sudan (2014) and Central African Republic (2014), two non-state parties to the Charter at the time of the mission, further consolidate the positive impact this mandate can contribute as well as the positive willingness of African countries to engage with the Committee. 6 CONCLUDING REMARKS Even before it came into force, and as early as 1995, the African Children’s Rights Charter has been called ‘the most progressive of the treaties on the rights of the child’.126 As the Charter transitions from ‘childhood’ to ‘adulthood’ and turns 18 in November 2017, there are indications that its theoretical added value also has had some positive impact on the lived realities of children on the African continent. Indeed, it is befitting that the African Committee has interpreted ‘welfare’ in the title of the African Children’s Rights Charter to mean that, while the recognition of the rights contained in the Charter is an obligation of State parties, and a starting point, such recognitions should lead to the enjoyment of rights and the wellbeing of children. An assessment of the Charter’s 18 years of operation can be juxtaposed with that of the impact of the CRC which has been in existence for 27 years. In 2014, in the context of the 25th anniversary of the CRC, UNICEF posed the question ‘Does a child born today have better prospects in life than one who was born in 1989?’,127 and provided a verdict by saying ‘yes, but not every child’.128 The same can be said of the Charter. While a number of children are thriving as a result of its implementation, there still remain those that continue to be 124 Apart from article 45 of the Charter, investigative missions are governed by the Guidelines on the Conduct of Investigations by the ACERWC (the Investigation Guidelines). 125 The report is available at http://www.acerwc.org/download/report-on-theinvestigation-mission-on-children-with-albinism-in-tanzania/?wpdmdl=9694 (accessed 15 October 2017). 126 G Van Bueren The international law of the rights of the child (1995) 402. 127 UNICEF (n 2 above) 7. 128 As above.