Seeking Remedies for Torture Victims: A Handbook on the Individual Complaints Procedures of the UN Tready Bodies The reporting process has therefore been subjected to significant reform in recent years and the CAT and HRC have shown an ability to innovate new procedures and to continuously improve their operating methods. As a way of countering some States’ chronic failure to submit, Committees decided to examine a State’s human rights record under the relevant treaty even in the absence of report.373 However, this still failed to address the delays and unreliability inherent in the initial reporting process. Against this backdrop, in 2007, at its 38th session, the CAT Committee adopted a new optional reporting procedure, which requires the preparation by the Committee of a list of issues prior to reporting (LoIPR) that will be transmitted to the State party prior to the submission of its respective periodic report.374 The State party’s replies to this LoIPR constitute the State party’s periodic report. This procedure is aimed at assisting “States parties in preparing more focused reports and submit them on time”.375 The list of issues is to be transmitted to the State at least a year prior to the due date of their report, and the Committee will prioritize reports submitted under the new procedure to avoid the long delays associated with the previous process. Once a report has been submitted, the Committee will no longer be able to request additional information in the event of a delay. It is important to note that, in the new procedure, the ‘focused’ report submitted by the State party will replace the standard State report and the replies to the LoI as foreseen in the reporting procedure before 2007.376 Of the 75 States due to report to the CAT between 2009 and 2012, 55 accepted the new optional reporting procedure, with only 3 rejecting it, and 17 failing to reply.377 This suggests the procedure is so far well supported by State parties. It needs to be noted that the CAT Committee will stop adopting and transmitting the LoI prior to the examination of the State periodic report (see Section above) to States parties that have accepted the optional reporting procedure and, hence, that have prepared the report on the basis of the LoIPR. 373 HRC, General Comment No. 30, para. 4(b). 374 CAT Committee, “Status of the Optional Reporting Procedure of the Committee Against Torture and Proposals for its Revision”, (2011) UN Doc. CAT/C/47/2. 375 CAT Committee, Overview of the working methods, Section V, available at: http://www.ohchr.org/ EN/HRBodies/CAT/Pages/WorkingMethods.aspx. 376 See CAT Committee, Information for Civil Society Organisations and National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), “Written Information for LOIs and LOIPR”, available at: http://www.ohchr. org/EN/HRBodies/CAT/Pages/NGOsNHRIs.aspx; CCPR Centre, NGO Guidelines on the Reporting Process, p. 13, available at: http://ccprcentre.org/doc/CCPR/Handbook/CCPR_Guidelines%20for%20 NGOs_en.pdf. 377 CAT Committee, “Status of the Optional Reporting Procedure of the Committee Against Torture and Proposals for its Revision”, (2011) UN Doc. CAT/C/47/2, para 18. 126