A/75/44 K. Implementation of retreat decisions on the working methods of the Committee 19. In follow-up to the decisions taken at its two-day retreat on working methods, held at its fifty-third session, the Committee undertook the following actions: (a) Two additional States (Botswana and Mali) with long-overdue initial reports were offered the simplified reporting procedure, bringing the total number of States in that position and that have received that offer to 13 (see sect. II.D); (b) A preliminary substantive evaluation of the simplified reporting procedure (see sect. II.B) was started; (c) adopted; Guidelines for follow-up to concluding observations (CAT/C/55/3) were (d) The contribution and participation of national human rights institutions, national preventive mechanisms and NGOs in the Committee’s sessions was improved (see sects. I.G and I.H), including using new communication technologies, such as Skype and videoconferences; (e) A working group on individual complaints was established so as to enable the Committee to apprehend fully the internal processes of the individual complaints procedure, and an intersessional working group on communications was set up to make recommendations to the Committee on draft decisions of inadmissibility and discontinuances; (f) Guidelines on the receipt and handling of allegations of reprisals against individuals and organizations cooperating with the Committee (see sect. I.I) were adopted. L. Participation of Committee members in other meetings 20. During the period under consideration, Committee members participated in several events, as follows: (a) Ms. Racu attended an international conference entitled “Effective multilateralism in the fight against torture: trends in the OSCE region and the way forward”, organized by the Permanent Representatives of Austria, Denmark and Switzerland to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in cooperation with Slovakia (OSCE Chair for 2019) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, co-sponsored by a total of 42 OSCE participating States, and held in Vienna on 5 June 2019; (b) Ms. Racu attended an expert consultation on the international guidelines on human rights and drug policy, organized by OHCHR and the United Nations Development Programme, and held in Geneva on 20 and 21 June 2019; (c) Ms. Racu attended a Human Rights Council side event entitled “Women in detention: putting the UN standards in practice”, co-organized by the Permanent Missions of Austria, the Republic of Moldova and Thailand to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, and held in Geneva on 5 July 2019; (d) Claude Heller attended a workshop where he gave a presentation on treaty bodies, in particular on the Committee against Torture and its simplified reporting procedure; the workshop was organized by OHCHR-Regional Office in Central America, and held in Santo Domingo from 3 to 5 September 2019; (e) Ms. Racu attended a conference entitled “TRIP: an efficient tool for the implementation of treaty bodies’ recommendations”, organized by the Geneva Academy and the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights and held in Geneva on 18 and 19 September 2019; (f) Ms. Racu attended a regional meeting on the rights of victims of violent crime suffered in immigration and pretrial detention, organized by Fair Trials and Redress, and held in The Hague on 26 and 27 September 2019; (g) Essadia Belmir attended a seminar on the role of public authorities in the prevention and combating of torture and ill-treatment, organized by Dignity – Danish Institute against Torture and Morocco, held in Rabat on 17 October 2019; 4