Appendix II CHAIRPERSON’S SUMMARY OF VIEWS AND COMMENTS MADE BY DELEGATIONS DURING THE NEGOTIATIONS ON A DRAFT OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN 1. The Open-ended Working Group on the Elaboration of a Draft Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women held a number of informal meetings to consider the Chairperson’s compilation text of a draft optional protocol, contained in document E/CN.6/1997/WG/L.1. The Working Group requested the Chairperson to prepare a summary of the discussions held during the informal meetings for inclusion in the report of the Working Group. 2. Throughout the informal meetings, the Working Group benefited from the comments of and replies to questions by Ms. Silvia Cartwright, a representative of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, who participated in the Working Group as a resource person in accordance with Economic and Social Council decision 1996/240. She explained the Committee’s current working methods and the responsibilities entrusted to it in accordance with article 17 of the Convention. 3. With the agreement of the Working Group, the Chairperson also called on non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations to make statements on the substance of a matter. 4. The following reflects the Chairperson’s understanding of the discussions of the Working Group on the draft optional protocol (E/CN.6/1997/WG/L.1), arranged on an article-by-article basis. The Chairperson wishes to note that, since no agreement has yet been reached in the Working Group on the question of standing and on the terminology regarding complainants, any such references in the following summary are without prejudice to the final outcome of the work of the Working Group. Preamble 5. The Working Group agreed that the optional protocol would be preceded by a preamble. Many delegations expressed a preference for a short, succinct preamble. Since the preamble would be expected to reflect the content of the optional protocol, it was agreed to revert to it once the body of the optional protocol had been agreed upon. Article 1 6. Many delegations expressed a preference for a concise article 1, limited to the question of the Committee’s competence to receive and consider communications, as proposed in document E/CN.6/1997/WG/L.1. The Working Group agreed ad referendum to that, although some delegations felt that the article should be expanded to address also the question of standing. The addition of a reference that communications would be submitted in accordance with the provisions of the present protocol received support. 7. While some delegations expressed a preference for maintaining a separate subparagraph which would make it explicit that no communications were to be -96-