2. List of issues/list of themes
Before the session at which it will formally consider a report, a committee
draws up a list of issues, which is submitted to the State party. This list
provides an opportunity for the committee to request from the State party
any additional information, which may have been omitted from the report
or which members consider necessary for the committee to assess the state
of implementation of the treaty in the country concerned. The list of issues
also enables the committee to begin the process of questioning the State
party in more detail on specific issues raised by the report which are of
particular concern to members. Many State parties find the list of issues
a useful guide to the line of questioning they are likely to face when their
report is formally considered. This enables their delegations to prepare
themselves and makes their dialogue with the committee more constructive,
informed and concrete.
Lists of issues are drafted before the session at which a report will be considered. Depending on the treaty body, they are drafted either in a presessional working group convened immediately before or after a regular
session or during the plenary session. Most committees appoint one or more
of their members to act as country rapporteurs to take the lead in drafting the
list of issues for a specific country.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has adopted the
so-called list of themes, to which no responses are required. The country rapporteur will send a State party a short list of themes with a view to guiding
and focusing the dialogue between its delegation and the Committee during
the consideration of the State party’s report.
3. Written response to list of issues
The written responses to the list of issues supplement the report, and are
especially important if it has taken a committee a long time to take up the
report.
4. List of issues prior to reporting
In 2007, the Committee against Torture adopted a new optional reporting procedure (the so-called list of issues prior to reporting) which consists in the adoption of lists of issues to help State parties to prepare their
periodic reports.
The State party’s response to this list of issues constitutes its periodic
report under article 19 of the Convention against Torture.
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