III.
SUBMISSION OF REPORTS BY STATES PARTIES
UNDER ARTICLE 19 OF THE CONVENTION
Action taken by the Committee to ensure the submission of reports
Thirteenth session
26. The Committee, at its 190th and 206th meetings, held on 7 and
17 November 1994, considered the status of submission of reports under
article 19 of the Convention. The Committee had before it the following
documents:
(a) Notes by the Secretary-General concerning initial reports of States
parties which were due from 1988 to 1994 (CAT/C/5, 7, 9, 12, 16/Rev.1, 21/Rev.1
and 24);
(b) Notes by the Secretary-General concerning second periodic reports
which were due from 1992 to 1994 (CAT/C/17, 20/Rev.1 and 25).
27. The Committee was informed that, in addition to the eight reports that were
scheduled for consideration by the Committee at its thirteenth session (see
chap. IV, para. 44), the Secretary-General had received the second periodic
report of Italy (CAT/C/25/Add.4), the second periodic report of the Netherlands
(CAT/C/25/Add.1 and 2) and additional information from Greece, whose second
periodic report had been considered by the Committee at its twelfth session. 4/
28. The Committee was also informed that the revised version of the initial
report of Belize, requested for 10 March 1994 by the Committee at its
eleventh session, had not yet been received in spite of a reminder sent by the
Secretary-General in June 1994.
29. In accordance with rule 65 of the Committee’s rules of procedure and its
decisions, the Secretary-General continued sending reminders automatically to
those States parties whose initial reports were more than 12 months overdue, and
subsequent reminders every six months.
30. Furthermore, the Committee was informed that, before its thirteenth
session, the Secretary-General had sent a tenth reminder to Togo and a ninth
reminder to Uganda, whose initial reports were due in 1988; a seventh reminder
to Guyana, whose initial report was due in 1989; a fifth reminder to Brazil and
a sixth reminder to Guinea, whose initial reports were due in 1990; a fourth
reminder to Malta and Somalia, whose initial reports were due in 1991; second
reminders to Jordan, Venezuela, Yemen and Yugoslavia, whose initial reports were
due in 1992; and first reminders to Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde,
Latvia and Seychelles, whose initial reports were due in 1993.
31. With regard to States parties whose initial reports were more than four or
five years overdue, namely Brazil, Guinea, Guyana, Togo and Uganda, the
Committee deplored the fact that, in spite of several reminders sent by the
Secretary-General and letters or other messages from its Chairman to their
respective Ministers for Foreign Affairs, those States parties continued not to
comply with the obligations they had freely assumed under the Convention. The
Committee stressed that it had the duty to monitor the Convention and that the
non-compliance of a State party with its reporting obligations constituted an
infringement of the provisions of the Convention. The Committee also decided to
request Brazil and Guinea to submit both the initial and the second periodic
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