Decisions of the Fifteenth Session : . 02/02/96.
A/51/38,pg.1. (Decision)

Convention Abbreviation: CEDAW
Decisions of the Fifteenth Session

Decision 15/I

1. The Committee expresses its appreciation to the States parties to the Convention for the decision adopted at the eighth meeting of States parties and for General Assembly resolution 49/164 and decision 49/448, both of 23 December 1994, and resolution 50/202 of 22 December 1995, concerning the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention.

2. The Committee looks forward to the ratification of the amendment by States parties as quickly as possible.

3. For the interim period, the Committee urges the appropriate intergovernmental bodies to authorize adequate meeting time to enable the Committee to continue to reduce the increasing backlog in States parties' reports awaiting review.

4. The Committee considers that at least two 3-week sessions annually, each preceded by a pre-session working group, are needed to alleviate the heavy workload of the Committee.

5. The Committee requests the Secretariat to inform the Committee at its sixteenth session on action taken at the ninth meeting of States parties concerning article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 50/202.

Decision 15/II

The Committee decides to request the Secretariat to prepare for its sixteenth session an analysis of the practice of other human rights treaty bodies in receiving information from non-governmental organizations and participation of the latter in the meetings of those bodies.

Decision 15/III

The Committee decides to dispense in its report with the published detailed summary of the discussion on reports submitted by States parties in conformity with article 18 of the Convention. Summary records will, however, be retained and the concluding comments and recommendations of the Committee will be preceded by a brief summary of the presentation of the States parties. The Committee reiterates its decision that the concluding comments be transmitted to the States parties concerned immediately after the close of the session.

Decision 15/IV

The Committee wishes to draw the attention of the Commission on the Status of Women to the Committee's suggestion 7 on elements for an optional protocol to the Convention, which had been agreed upon at the fourteenth session of the Committee and was contained in the report on that session. The Committee urges the Commission to prepare the optional protocol at its fortieth session, in March 1996, and recalls that at the Fourth World Conference on Women consensus was reached to "support the process initiated by the Commission on the Status of Women with a view to elaborating a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women that could enter into force as soon as possible ...".