A/66/44 submitted their report under the standard procedure and one (Plurinational State of Bolivia) had already begun preparing its report under the standard procedure. 35. The Committee welcomes the fact that a high number of States parties have accepted this new procedure aiming at assisting States parties to fulfil their reporting obligations, as it strengthens the cooperation between the Committee and States parties. 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. C. Preliminary evaluation of the optional reporting procedure 36. At its forty-sixth session, the Committee discussed further its optional reporting procedure. It took note of and expressed appreciation for the Secretariat’s informal document containing proposals for the next reporting cycle (2013–2016) and decided, as a preliminary evaluation: (a) to consider the procedure as a positive step, as also indicated by States parties; (b) to continue the procedure for the next reporting cycle; and (c) to seek the prior acceptance of States parties that have not yet agreed to avail themselves of the procedure, for reports due in 2013. 37. In addition, the Committee also decided that: (a) the procedure would need to be evaluated with regard to each of the States parties that have been submitted a list of issues prior to reporting (two members of the Committee considered that the evaluation should be done with an external component); (b) country priorities should also be discussed and established, according to the provisions of the Convention; and (c) procedural aspects, such as deadlines to report, length of documents, number of questions, page limits, reminders, guidelines, etc. should also be considered. 38. The Committee will continue to evaluate the procedure at its forty-seventh session; it requested the secretariat to prepare and submit a report on the status of the optional reporting procedure, also containing information on any new development related to the procedure, including with regard to other treaty bodies that have adopted a similar procedure. D. Reminders for overdue initial reports 39. Further to its decision to send reminders to all States parties whose initial reports were three or more years overdue taken at its forty-first session, the Committee, at its fortysixth session, decided to send reminders to the following State parties: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Holy See, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland and Timor-Leste. 40. The Committee drew the attention of these States parties to the fact that delays in reporting seriously hamper the implementation of the Convention in the States parties and the Committee in carrying out its function of monitoring such implementation. The Committee requested information on the progress made by these States parties regarding the fulfilment of their reporting obligations and on any obstacles that they might be facing in that respect. It also informed them that, according to rule 67 of its rules of procedure, the Committee might proceed with a review of the implementation of the Convention in the GE.11-45568 7