11. ORGANIZATION OF WORK A. Summary records 15. Arrangements had been made on a provisional basis to have summary records for the present session (plenary meetlngs), although the final decislon on that question would be taken by the General Assembly at its thirty-eighth session. B. 20. mad Secr inf sup Secr the mak rep Working group 16. Consultations took place on the advisability of establi~hing a working group to work out the guidelines for the preparation of repr .- s"lbmitted by states parties. After a general discussion, it was finally .. that the working group should be composed of the members of the Bureau (the officers of the Committee), plus experts from the geographical regions: Norway {Western Europe), Egypt (Africa), Philippines (Asia), Mexico (Latin America) and the German Democratic Republic (Eastern Europe). 1 21con of Sta 23 22. C. Decision recommending the inclusion of Arabic among the official and working languages of the Committee rep the 17. At the 20th meeting, on 9 August 1983, Ms. Abou EI-Fetouh, the expert from Egypt, proposed an amendment to rule 19 of the rules of procedure of the committee, to the effect that Arabic should be included as one of the working languages of the Commlttee. There was no objection to that proposal. 23. 18. At the 22nd meeting, on 10 August 1983, on a proposal by Ms. Irene Cortes, the expert from the Philippines, WhlCh was seconded by Ms. Marie Caron, the expert from Canada, the proposal was put to a vote in accordance Witil rule 52 of the rules of procedure of the Committee. The amendment was adopted by 19 votes in favour, none against, and 1 abstention. The text of rule 19 of the rules of procedure, as amended, reads as follows: mee Con exc rep and 24. eJArabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish shall be the official and working languages of the Committee." D. Future work of the Committee 19. There was general agreement that, in the light of the experience of the present session, the Secretariat should submit no more than seven reports for consideration at the next session, se as to leave time for discussion of general matters. In that respect, it was proposed that for the 1984 session priority should be given to the six reports already before the Committee at its current session, which could not be considered because of lack of time, and one additional report. As a general criterion to be followed for the consideration of reports, the Committee should give priority to those States parties which indicate their intention to send representatives from their States to introduce their reports, and shou~d also try, as far as possible, to take into account the different levels of deVelopment and the geographical situation of the States parties. The Sec~'etariat ought to contact reporting States in advance to determine whether they wished their reports to be considered at Vienna or in New York. -4- • 25. meaf