A/67/44 II. Submission of reports by States parties under article 19 of the Convention 30. During the period covered by the present report, 15 reports from States parties under article 19 of the Convention were submitted to the Secretary-General. Initial reports were submitted by Gabon and Mauritania. Second periodic reports were submitted by Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Burundi, Japan and Kyrgyzstan. A fourth periodic report was submitted by Uzbekistan. Fifth periodic reports were submitted by Estonia, Latvia and the United Kingdom. Combined fifth and sixth periodic reports were submitted by Peru and Poland. Sixth periodic reports were submitted by Guatemala and the Netherlands. A combined sixth and seventh periodic report was submitted by Norway. 31. As at 1 June 2012, the Committee had received a total of 332 reports and had examined 310; there were 291 overdue periodic reports and 29 overdue initial reports (see annex XI to the present report). A. Invitation to submit periodic reports 32. Further to its decision taken at its forty-first session, the Committee continued, at its forty-seventh and forty-eighth sessions, to invite States parties, in the last paragraph of the concluding observations, to submit their next periodic reports within a four-year period from the adoption of the concluding observations, and to indicate the due date of the next report in the same paragraph. 33. In addition, the Committee decided, at its forty-seventh session, to invite States parties to accept, within one year from the adoption of their concluding observations, to report under the optional reporting procedure, or, if a State party has already accepted to report under this procedure, to indicate that the Committee will submit to the State party, in due course, a list of issues prior to the submission of its next periodic report. B. Optional reporting procedure 34. The Committee welcomes the fact that a high number of States parties have accepted this optional reporting procedure, which consists of the preparation and adoption of a list of issues to be transmitted to States parties prior to the submission of a State party’s periodic report (known as the list of issues prior to reporting – LOIPR). This procedure aims at assisting States parties to fulfil their reporting obligations, as it strengthens the cooperation between the Committee and States parties. 3 While the Committee understands that the adoption, since 2007, of lists of issues prior to reporting facilitates States parties’ reporting obligations, it nonetheless wants to emphasize that this new procedure of drafting lists of issues prior to reporting has increased the Committee’s workload substantially, as their preparation requires more work than the traditional lists of issues following the submission of a State party’s report. This is particularly significant in a Committee with such a small membership. 35. Further to its decision to continue with this procedure for a new four-year reporting cycle, the Committee decided, at its forty-seventh session, to invite the following 12 States parties to report under this procedure for their report due in 2013: Azerbaijan, Chile, 3 GE.12-44492 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 44 (A/66/44), paras. 28–35. 7