130 Mezmur/18th birthday of the African Children’s Rights Charter Charter is not clear. The same can be said of ANPPCAN, and other CSOs in Africa. While there is a systemic practice of advocating for the ratification by the AU Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) including during AU Summits, it is doubtful if such a practice existed in the 1990s. Since the African Children’s Committee was created only in 2002, it did not get the chance to play any role in lobbying for ratification in the 1990s. If the reason for the delay for ratification resulted from African countries harbouring doubts about some of its contents, it would have led to a significant number of reservations upon ratification, which, as is shown in the next section, was not really the case. It is important that current and future engagements and plans aimed at reaching universal ratification of the Charter will need to take some of this information on board. 3 THE COMMITMENT TO BE BOUND: RATIFICATIONS, AND RESERVATIONS As at October 2017, the ratification of the Charter stands at 48 countries. The latest ratification of the Charter, in July 2016, was by the Central African Republic.23 Subsequently, between August 2016 and January 2017, there remained 6 countries that have not ratified the Charter. These countries are the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Saharawi Republic, São Tome and Principe, Somalia, South Sudan, and Tunisia. In January 2017, with the re-admission of Morocco into the AU, this list of countries increased to 7. With the exception of Morocco, all 6 countries have signed the Charter, and have received a promotional visit by the African Children’s Committee, advocating for ratification. A number of systemic efforts are exerted to urge ratification of the Charter. For instance, the African Committee has undertaken promotional missions to advocate for ratification of the Charter to Tunisia (2013), to Saharawi Republic (2014), to DRC (2015), and to São Tome and Principe (2016). A long list of subsequent decisions of the AU Executive Council urge member States that have not ratified the Charter to do so.24 The Secretariat of the African Committee regularly sends note verbales to States as a reminder about ratification. In 2013, the African Children’s Committee started a two years campaign aimed 23 Available at https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/7773-sl-african_charter _on_the_rights_and_welfare_of_the_child_1.pdf (accessed 10 October 2017). 24 See, for instance, EX.CL/Dec.843(XXV) Decision on the Report of the African Committee of experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) – Doc. EX.CL/ 858(XXV) (2014); EX.CL/Dec.923(XXIX) Decision on the Report of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) Doc. EX.CL/ 977(XXIX), (2016); EX.CL/Dec.977(XXXI) Decision on the Report of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child Doc.EX.CL/1033(XXXI) (2017).