with sufficient time for the effective performance of its functions under the Convention; 2. Supports the request made by the Committee 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 fifteenth session, and recommends that the request made by the Committee at its fourteenth session to hold two sessions in 1996, each of three weeks’ duration, be considered favourably, within the existing level of budgetary resources; 3. Welcomes the efforts made by the Committee to improve its procedures and working methods, and encourages it to continue such efforts, within its mandate; 4. Notes that suggestion No. 7, entitled "Elements for an optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women", adopted by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at its fourteenth session, was transmitted to the Commission on the Status of Women for consideration; 5. Requests the Secretary-General to invite Governments, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations to submit their views on an optional protocol to the Convention, including those related to feasibility, taking into account the elements suggested by the Committee in its suggestion No. 7; 6. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the Commission on the Status of Women at its fortieth session a comprehensive report, including a synthesis, on the views expressed in accordance with paragraph 5 above, if possible six weeks prior to the commencement of the session; 7. Decides that the Commission on the Status of Women should establish an in-session open-ended working group for a two-week period at its fortieth session to consider the report requested in paragraph 6 above with a view to elaborating a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; 8. Once again urges all States that have not yet done so to become parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; 9. Encourages States to consider limiting the extent of any reservation they lodge to the Convention, to formulate any reservation as precisely and as narrowly as possible, and to ensure that no reservation is incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention or otherwise contrary to international law; 10. Requests States Parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to review their reservations regularly with a view to withdrawing them expeditiously so that the Convention may be fully implemented; 11. Encourages States Parties who are behind schedule in submitting their periodic reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to do so promptly, and requests the Committee to follow up this problem; 12. Urges the Secretary-General to continue to publicize widely the decisions and recommendations of the Committee. -7-