A/70/44 Bahrain. The lists of issues prior to reporting were transmitted to the respective State parties. During the present reporting period, Ghana accepted to report under the simplified reporting procedure. C. Preliminary evaluation of the simplified reporting procedure 35. At the retreat on its working methods, the Committee decided to offer the simplified reporting procedure to States parties with long overdue initial reports (two States per year, bearing in mind the capacity of the Secretariat). It decided also to establish a working group to contribute to a substantive evaluation of the simplified reporting procedure, including to examine the issue of updating the lists of issues prior to reporting for which no responses have been received in two years, and to improve lists of issues prior to reporting. The Committee took into account the report of the secretariat on the status of the optional reporting procedure ( CAT/C/47/2) and the note by the secretariat on the simplified reporting procedure (HRI/MC/2014/4) issued following the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 68/268. 36. In the Committee’s view, the fact that only 5 of the 125 States parties that are at the periodic reporting stage declined to report under it indicates the success of this procedure; 88 have expressly accepted to report under it and the remaining 32 have not yet answered or have not yet been invited to report under it. In addition, the fact that other treaty bodies have also adopted, or are considering adopting, this procedure indicates its clear added value for the reporting system. 37. The updated information relating to the procedure is available from a dedicated web page (www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CAT/Pages/ReportingProcedures.aspx). D. Reminders for overdue initial and periodic reports 38. At its fifty-third session, the Committee decided to send reminders to all States parties whose initial reports were overdue and to all States parties whose periodic reports were four or more years overdue. 39. The Committee drew the attention of those States parties to the fact that delays in reporting seriously hamper the implementation of the Convention in the States parties and the ability of the Committee to carry out its function of monitoring such implementation. The Committee requested information on the progress made by those States parties in fulfilling their reporting obligations and on any obstacles that they might be facing in that respect. It also informed them that, in accordance with rule 67 of its rules of procedure, the Committee might proceed with a review of the implementation of the Convention in the State party in the absence of a report, and that such review would be carried out on the basis of information that is available to the Committee, including sources from outside the United Natio ns. E. Examination of measures taken by a State party in the absence of a report 40. The Committee decided at its fifty-second session to take action with regard to States parties whose initial reports were long overdue. Noting that the initial report s of Cabo Verde and Seychelles had been overdue since 1993, the Committee decided to send a specific reminder to those States parties to submit their initial reports before the fifty-fourth session of the Committee. At the end of the fifty -third session, the Committee decided to offer those States parties the simplified reporting procedure. If they do not accept the simplified reporting procedure or if reports under the traditional GE.15-13195 13/24