CAT/C/AUS/CO/4-5 appropriate measures to seek from other States parties the assistance that is necessary, including the supplying of all evidence at their disposal, to ensure that meaningful and thorough investigations are carried out; (c) Victims obtain redress and fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible. Sterilization of persons with disabilities 20. The Committee is concerned at reports received indicating that involuntary or coerced sterilization of children and adults with disabilities is an ongoing practice in the State party (arts. 2 and 16). The Committee recommends that the State party enact uniform national legislation prohibiting, except where there is a serious threat to life or health, the use of sterilization without the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, and that it ensure that, once adopted, this legislation is effectively applied. Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights 21. While noting with great appreciation the establishment of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (see paragraph 5 (b) above), the Committee observes with concern the reports that its recommendations are not always taken into account (art. 2). The Committee encourages the State party to implement the recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights as a means of guaranteeing that its legislative framework is fully in line with its human rights obligations, including those under the Convention. Other issues 22. While welcoming the State party’s signing of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on 19 May 2009, and its commitment to ratification of the Optional Protocol as a matter of priority (A/HRC/17/10, para. 31), the Committee encourages it to adopt all the necessary measures to accelerate the process of ratification in order to become a party to the Optional Protocol as soon as possible. 23. The Committee invites the State party to become a party to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure, and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 24. The State party is requested to disseminate widely the report submitted to the Committee and the present concluding observations, in all appropriate languages, through official websites, the media and non-governmental organizations. 25. The Committee requests the State party to provide, by 28 November 2015, followup information in response to the Committee’s recommendations contained in paragraphs 9, 12, 15 and 16 of the present document. 26. The State party is invited to submit its next report, which will be its sixth periodic report, by 28 November 2018. For that purpose, the Committee will, in due course, transmit to the State party a list of issues prior to reporting, considering that the State party has accepted to report to the Committee under the optional reporting procedure. 8