(2017) 1 African Human Rights Yearbook 143 There still remain 11 State parties with overdue reports,99 and Central African Republic’s initial report will be due in August 2018. While the Rules of Procedures of the Committee make provision for the consideration of the situation of children’s rights in a State party in the absence of a State party report, the Committee seems to have preferred not to invoke such a rule but rather engage and support State parties to report. Such an approach is reflected in the most recent AU Executive Council report, in which it asked the Committee to continue to support the efforts of State parties that have not reported to enable them to report.100 To date, the great majority of reports submitted by States are of good quality and the engagement during the constructive dialogue has often been composed of high level and multi-sectoral members of delegation. The submission of complementary reports by CSOs has also informed both the dialogue as well as the contents of concluding observations. What is in need of further improvement include an engagement with national human rights institutions around reporting and follow up, consolidation of the method and process of the follow up to implementation of Concluding Observations conducted by the Committee, as well as the extent to which the recommendations contained in concluding observations are focused, actionable, and to a certain extent prioritised.101 While the Committee has already undertaken measures to reduce the reporting fatigue by States,102 it would also be worthwhile to explore the advantages and disadvantages of aligning the timing for periodic reports from every three years to every five years. 5.2 Individual complaints and investigative missions Probably by design, the first three individual complaints decided on their merits by the African Committee have focused on issues on which the African Children’s Rights Charter has added normative value.103 99 Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mauritius, Seychelles, Swaziland, and Zambia. In 2014, the Executive Council of the AU ‘[w]elcomed the Committees campaign on the Universal Ratification of and Reporting on the implementation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child which builds towards the 25th Anniversary of the adoption of the Charter in 2015 and URGES the 7 Member States who have not yet ratified the Charter, to expedite their ratification process for possible completion on or before the end of 2015’. See EX.CL/ Dec.843(XXV) Decision on the Report of the African Committee of experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child – Doc. EX.CL/858(XXV) para 3. 100 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). 101 ‘Prioritization’ does not mean making a hierarchy between rights, but rather identifying and labeling few recommendations as in need of urgent attention. 102 Such as indicating in its guidelines for reporting that States that have submitted a report to the CRC Committee, can use the elements of the same report and submit to the African Committee by highlighting the specificities of the African Children’s Rights Charter. 103 Table of cases available at http://www.acerwc.org/communications/table-ofcommunications/ (accessed 10 October 2017).