CERD, A/57/18 (2002)

CHAPTER IX. OVERVIEW OF THE METHODS OF WORK OF THE COMMITTEE

505. An overview of the methods of work of the Committee was included in its report to the fifty-
first session of the General Assembly6. It highlighted changes introduced in recent years and was designed to make the Committee's procedures more transparent and accessible to both States parties and the public.

506. The Committee reviewed several aspects of its working methods at its sixtieth [March 2002] and sixty-first [August 2002] sessions. It discussed its practices concerning the adoption of concluding observations in meetings that are open to the public. It reaffirmed by consensus its position that in the interest of transparency, the adoption of concluding observations in public meetings should continue, subject to immediate notification to States parties once the concluding observations in a given case are finalized, as is the current practice.

507. At its sixtieth session [March 2002], the Committee decided to review its working methods at its sixty-first session and asked Mr. Valencia Rodríguez, convenor of an open-ended working group on this issue, to prepare and submit a working paper for consideration. The working paper submitted by Mr. Valencia Rodríguez was extensively discussed and revised by the Committee at its sixty-first session [August 2002]. It was decided that the discussion on working methods would be continued at the sixty-second session, to be held in March 2003, on the basis of the working paper revised by Mr. Valencia Rodríguez and distributed at the end of the sixty-first session.

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6 Official Reports of the General Assembly, Fifty-first Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/51/18), paras. 587-627.