A/71/44 A. Invitation to submit periodic reports 24. Further to its decision taken at its forty-first session,1 the Committee continued, at its fifty-fifth, fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh 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. 25. In addition, further to its decision taken at its forty-seventh session,2 the Committee continued, at its fifty-fifth, fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh sessions, 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 the 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. Simplified reporting procedure 26. The Committee welcomes the fact that a high number of States parties have accepted the 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). The procedure is aimed 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, since 2007, the adoption of lists of issues prior to reporting has facilitated the States parties’ reporting obligations, it nonetheless wishes to emphasize that the procedure of drafting lists of issues prior to reporting has increased its 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. 27. The Committee decided, at its fifty-second session, to refer to this procedure as the simplified reporting procedure (lists of issues prior to reporting) and to continue to invite States parties to report under this procedure for their next periodic report. 28. At its fifty-sixth session, the Committee adopted lists of issues prior to reporting with regard to the States parties that had accepted the invitation to submit their next report, due in 2017, under this procedure: Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland and Portugal. It also adopted a list of issues prior to reporting with regard to a State party, Ghana, that had recently accepted the simplified reporting procedure. Those lists of issues prior to reporting were transmitted to the respective States parties. 29. At its fifty-seventh session, the Committee adopted a list of issues prior to reporting with regard to a State party, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, that had accepted the invitation to submit its next report, due in 2017, under this procedure. It also adopted lists of issues prior to reporting with regard to the States parties that had accepted the invitation to submit their next report, due in 2018, under this procedure: Cyprus, Lithuania and Uruguay. 30. 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 also decided to establish a working group _________________ 1 2 3 6 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-fourth Session, Supplement No. 44 (A/64/44), para. 26. Ibid., Sixty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 44 (A/67/44), para. 33. Ibid., Sixty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 44 (A/66/44), paras. 28-35. GE.16-13567