A/RES/55/90 11. Welcomes the publication of the revised Manual on Human Rights Reporting, 14 and encourages the updating of the Manual to reflect new developments in the field of human rights, including the adoption of new instruments; 12. Underlines the importance of providing technical assistance to a State, upon its request, in the process of ratifying human rights instruments and in the preparation of its initial and subsequent reports; 13. Welcomes the work done by the Secretary-General to compile in a single volume all the general guidelines regarding the form and content of reports to be submitted by States parties that have been issued by the human rights treaty bodies, and encourages the Secretary-General also to compile the rules of procedure for the treaty bodies; 14. Reiterates its concern about the persistent backlog of reports on the implementation by States parties of certain United Nations instruments on human rights and about delays in the consideration of reports of the human rights treaty bodies; 15. Also reiterates its concern about the large number of overdue reports, and again urges States parties to make every effort to meet their reporting obligations; 16. Urges all States parties whose reports have been examined by human rights treaty bodies to provide adequate follow-up to the observations and final comments of the treaty bodies on their reports; 17. Encourages the human rights treaty bodies to continue to identify specific possibilities for technical assistance, to be provided at the request of the State concerned, in the regular course of their work of reviewing the periodic reports of States parties, and encourages States parties to consider carefully the concluding observations of the treaty bodies in identifying their needs for technical assistance; 18. Urges each State party to translate, publish and make widely available in its territory the full text of the concluding observations on its reports to the human rights treaty bodies; 19. Welcomes the contribution to the work of the human rights treaty bodies made by the specialized agencies and other United Nations bodies, and encourages the specialized agencies and other United Nations bodies, the Commission on Human Rights, including its special procedures, and the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies to continue to explore specific measures to intensify this cooperation between them and to improve communication and information flow in order to improve further the quality of their work, including by avoiding unnecessary duplication; 20. Recognizes the important role played by non-governmental organizations in all parts of the world in the effective implementation of all human rights instruments, and encourages the exchange of information between the human rights treaty bodies and such organizations; 21. Recalls, with regard to the election of the members of the human rights treaty bodies, the importance of giving consideration to equitable geographical distribution and gender balance of the membership and to the representation of the principal legal systems and of bearing in mind that the members shall be elected and shall serve in their personal capacity and shall be of high moral character, acknowledged independence and recognized competence in the field of human 14 4 United Nations publication, Sales No. E.GV.97.0.16.