8. In its first twenty-two years, the Committee received many more than the 901 registered communications mentioned above. The Secretariat regularly receives inquiries from individuals who intend to submit a communication to the Committee. Such inquiries are not immediately registered as cases. In fact, the number of authors who eventually submit cases for consideration by the Committee under the Optional Protocol is relatively small, partly because the authors discover that their cases do not satisfy certain basic criteria of admissibility, such as the required exhaustion of domestic remedies, and partly because they realize that a reservation or a declaration by the State party concerned may operate to preclude the Committee’s competence to consider the case. These observations notwithstanding, the number of communications placed before the Committee is increasing steadily, and the Committee’s work is becoming better known to lawyers, researchers and the general public. The purpose of the Selected Decisions series is to contribute to the dissemination of its work. under the Optional Protocol, including certain important decisions declaring communications admissible and other decisions of an interlocutory nature. Volume 1 of this series, covering decisions taken from the second to the sixteenth session inclusive, was published in 1985 in English.2 Volume 2 covers decisions taken from the seventeenth to the thirty-second session and includes all decisions declaring communications admissible, two interim decisions requesting additional information from the author and State party, and two decisions under rule 86 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, requesting interim measures of protection3. Volume 3 contains a selection of decisions adopted from the thirty-third to thirty-ninth sessions, Volume 4 a selection of decisions adopted from the fortieth to the fortysixth session and Volume 5 covers sessions fortyseven to fifty-five. 11. During the period covered by the present volume, here has been once again a significant increase in the number of communications submitted to the Committee. The Special Rapporteur for New Communications of the Committee, whose mandate had been amended in 1991 to cope with the increasing caseload, has continued to further review and finetune his working methods. During the period covered by the present volume, the Special Rapporteur requested interim measures of protection in cases. 9. The first step towards wider dissemination of the Committee’s work was the decision taken during the seventh session to publish its Views: publication was desirable in the interests of the most effective exercise of the Committee’s functions under the Protocol, and publication in full was preferable to the publication of brief summaries. From the Annual Report of the Human Rights Committee in 1979 up to the 1993 report incorporating the forty-sixth session, all the Committee’s Views and a selection of its decisions declaring communications inadmissible, decisions in reversal of admissibility and decisions to discontinue consideration were published in full.1 12. The Special Rapporteur on Follow-Up on Views also continued to review his working methods during the period covered by the present volume. In 1997, his mandate was formally reviewed, and changes to the mandate incorporated into the Committee’s rules of proecedure. Under the revised follow-up procedure, the Committee in principle no longer considers follow-up information on a confidential basis but in public session. 10. At its fifteenth session, the Committee decided to proceed with a separate project, the periodical publication of a selection of its decisions 13. The format of decisions on admissibility and final Views adopted at the Committee’s thirtyseventh session in 1989, which was designed to achieve greater precision and brevity, continued to 1 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirtyfourth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/34/40); Thirty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/35/40); Thirty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/36/40); Thirty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/37/40); Thirty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/38/40); Thirty-ninth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/39/40); Fortieth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/40/40); Forty-first Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/41/40); Forty-second Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/42/40); Forty-third Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/43/40); Forty-fourth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/44/40); Forty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/45/40); Forty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/46/40); Forty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/47/40); Forty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/48/40). 2 Human Rights Committee, Selected Decisions under the Optional Protocol (Second to sixteenth sessions), New York, 1985 (United Nations publication, Sales No. .84.XIV.2), hereinafter referred to as Selected Decisions, vol.1. French and Spanish versions were published in June 1988 (CCPR/C/OP/1). For a discussion of the Committee’s jurisprudence, see Manfred Nowak: ICCPR Commentary, 2nd edition (Engel Verlag, 2005). 3 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Selected Decisions under the Optional Protocol (Seventeenth to thirty-second sessions),New York, 1990. French and Spanish versions were published in 1991. 2