of introducing the right of petition through the preparation of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Recalling General Assembly resolution 47/94 of 16 December 1992, Recalling its resolution 1993/14 of 27 July 1993 and other relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council relating to support for the Committee, Noting suggestion No. 5, on the feasibility of preparing an optional protocol to the Convention, adopted by the Committee at its thirteenth session, Noting that the workload of the Committee has increased because of the growing number of States parties to the Convention, and that the annual session of the Committee is still the shortest of all the annual sessions of the human rights treaty bodies, Welcoming the Committee’s efforts to further improve its working methods by adopting concluding observations containing specific suggestions and recommendations, 1. Supports the request made by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at its twelfth session for additional meeting time, with adequate support from the Secretariat, so as to allow the Committee to meet once a year for three weeks for its fourteenth and fifteenth sessions 10/ and recommends that the request for additional meeting time, made by the Committee at its thirteenth session, be considered within the existing level of budgetary resources; 2. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its forty-ninth session a report on the working methods of the Committee and its capacity to fulfil its mandate effectively, including a comparison with the working situation of other treaty bodies; 3. Requests the General Assembly, in the light of the above report, to review the working situation of the Committee and its capacity to fulfil its mandate effectively, and in this context also to consider the possibility of amending article 20 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women so as to allow for sufficient meeting time for the Committee; 4. Decides that the Commission on the Status of Women shall examine at its thirty-ninth session, in cooperation with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and taking into account the results of any governmental expert meeting on this question that may be convened prior to that session, the feasibility of introducing the right of petition through the preparation of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; 5. Notes with appreciation suggestion No. 6 on the International Conference on Population and Development and general recommendation No. 21 on equality in marriage and family relations, adopted by the Committee at its thirteenth session, both of which were transmitted to the Commission on the 10/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/48/38), para. 622. -6-