Implementation and follow-up Preparation of the report Concluding observations Preparation for review Consideration of the report How does each treaty body examine a State party’s report? Although there are variations in the procedures adopted by each committee in considering a State party’s report, the following basic stages are common to all treaty bodies. 1.  Submission of the initial report What is a common core document? The report must be submitted to the Secretary-General (represented by OHCHR) in one of the six official languages of the United Nations. It is then processed by the Secretariat, and translated into the committee’s working languages. Once processed, the report is scheduled for consideration by the committee at one of its regular sessions. It may take time before a report can be considered, as some treaty bodies face a two-year backlog. Most committees try to give priority to initial reports or to reports from States that have not reported for a long time. State reports consist of the common core document and a treaty-specific document. The common core document contains general and factual information relating to the implementation of the treaties which may be of relevance to all or several treaty bodies (see HRI/ MC/2006/3). A treaty body may request that the common core document be updated if it considers that the information it contains is out of date. The treaty-specific document contains information relating to the implementation of the treaty which the relevant committee monitors. 25