A/65/44 them in line with new methods of work that the Committee is implementing as well as to include the adoption of new procedures. 21. At its forty-fourth session, the Committee completed a first reading of its amended rules of procedure. A new amended draft will be prepared by the rapporteurs, Mr. Mariño and Ms. Sveaass, for the Committee to discuss at its next session. O. Reporting guidelines for treaty-specific documents 22. At its forty-third and forty-fourth sessions, the Committee continued the revision of its treaty-specific reporting guidelines, in the light of the harmonized guidelines on reporting under the international human rights treaties, including guidelines on a common core document (as contained in HRI/GEN/2/Rev.5). P. Decision of the Committee to request approval from the General Assembly for additional meeting time in 2011 and 2012 23. At its forty-second session, the Committee decided to request the General Assembly to provide appropriate financial support to enable it to meet for an additional session of four weeks in 2010 and in 2011, in addition to the two regular three-week sessions per year (A/64/44, paras. 20 to 22); the General Assembly did not approve the request. 24. At its forty-fourth session, the Committee decided to request the General Assembly to provide appropriate financial support to enable it to meet for an additional week per each session in 2011 and 2012, i.e. one additional week of sessional meetings in May and in November 2011 and in May and November 2012, in a total of four weeks, bringing its sessions to four weeks each (see annex IX to the present report). 25. The decision to request additional meeting time was taken due to the current insufficient meeting time for the Committee to undertake its mandated functions considering: (a) The backlog of 96 individual complaints pending before the Committee; (b) The backlog of 22 State party reports pending before the Committee; (c) The decision to consolidate the new optional reporting procedure (A/64/44, para. 27) adopted by the Committee (A/62/44, paras. 23 and 24), which has substantially increased the Committee’s workload with regard to the preparation of lists of issues prior to reporting; (d) The perspective of a substantial increase of submissions of States parties reports in 2011 and 2012, due to the high level of acceptance of the new optional reporting procedure by States parties (see paras. 35-37 of the present report), which require that these reports be considered within the shortest possible period of time after their receipt. 26. Pursuant to rule 25 of its rules of procedure, the Committee made this request with the acknowledgement of the programme budget implications arising from its decision (see annex X to the present report). Q. Informal working groups 27. At its forty-fourth session, in order to prepare proposals to improve its methods of work, the Committee decided to establish the following informal working groups: 4 GE.10-44721