A/72/44 V. Activities of the Committee under article 20 of the Convention 52. In accordance with article 20 (1) of the Convention, if the Committee receives reliable information that appears to it to contain well-founded indications that torture is being systematically practised in the territory of a State party, the Committee shall invite that State party to cooperate in the examination of the information and, to that end, to submit observations with regard to the information concerned. 53. In accordance with rule 75 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, the SecretaryGeneral shall bring to the attention of the Committee information that is, or appears to be, submitted for the Committee’s consideration under article 20 (1) of the Convention. 54. No information shall be received by the Committee if it concerns a State party that, in accordance with article 28 (1) of the Convention, declared at the time of ratification of or accession to the Convention that it did not recognize the competence of the Committee provided for in article 20, unless that State party has subsequently withdrawn its reservation in accordance with article 28 (2) of the Convention. 55. The Committee’s work under article 20 of the Convention continued during the period under review. In accordance with the provisions of article 20 and rules 78 and 79 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, all documents and proceedings of the Committee relating to its functions under article 20 are confidential and all the meetings concerning its proceedings under that article are closed. However, in accordance with article 20 (5) of the Convention, the Committee may, after consultations with the State party concerned, decide to include a summary account of the results of the proceedings in its annual report to the States parties and to the General Assembly. 56. In the framework of the Committee’s follow-up activities, the rapporteurs on article 20 continued to carry out activities aimed at encouraging States parties on which enquiries had been conducted and the results of such enquiries had been published, to take measures to implement the Committee’s recommendations. At its fifty-sixth session, the Committee adopted internal guidelines on practical modalities and criteria for deciding on follow-up visits to inquiry missions carried out under article 20 of the Convention. 57. Further information on the inquiry procedure is available on the Committee web page. Summary account of the results of the proceedings of the inquiry on Egypt 58. Egypt acceded to the Convention on 25 June 1986 and it entered into force on 26 June 1987. As Egypt did not declare that it did not recognize the competence of the Committee provided for in article 20 of the Convention, as it could have done, the article 20 procedure is applicable to it. 59. In March and October 2012, the Committee received communications alleging the systematic use of torture in Egypt from Alkarama Foundation, a non-governmental organization. The reports contained individual allegations of torture and descriptions of several mass events. Alkarama recalled that in 1996, the Committee had published a summary of a previous article 20 inquiry on Egypt, in which it had determined that the security forces systematically practised torture. Alkarama also transmitted recent reports by several non-governmental organizations containing additional torture allegations. 60. At its forty-ninth session in November 2012, the Committee had determined that the information submitted was reliable and contained well-founded indications that torture was being systematically practised in the territory of Egypt. The Committee invited the State party to cooperate in the examination of the information and submit its observations. The State party responded on 11 February 2013, describing its legal and institutional mechanisms to prevent and punish torture. The Committee considered that, together with additional information from non-governmental organizations, in November 2013, and decided to initiate an inquiry pursuant to article 20 (2) of the Convention. The Committee informed the State party and requested the Government to agree to a visit of its designated rapporteurs, Mr. Domah and Ms. Gaer. 12