A/RES/55/81 concerning the financing of the Committee and to notify the Secretary-General expeditiously in writing of their agreement to the amendment, as decided upon at the Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination on 15 January 1992,4 endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 47/111 and further reiterated at the Sixteenth Meeting of States Parties on 16 January 1996; 4. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure adequate financial arrangements and to provide the necessary support, including an adequate level of Secretariat assistance, in order to ensure the functioning of the Committee and to enable it to cope with its increasing amount of work; 5. Also requests the Secretary-General to invite those States parties to the Convention that are in arrears to pay the amounts in arrears, and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session; III Status of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General 9 on the status of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination;1 2. Expresses its satisfaction at the number of States that have ratified the Convention or acceded thereto, which now stands at one hundred and fifty-six; 3. Reaffirms once again its conviction that ratification of or accession to the Convention on a universal basis and the implementation of its provisions are necessary for the realization of the objectives of the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination and for action beyond the Decade; 4. Urges all States that have not yet become parties to the Convention to ratify it or accede thereto as soon as possible, bearing in mind the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to be held in South Africa, from 31 August to 7 September 2001; 5. Urges States to limit the extent of any reservation they lodge to the Convention and to formulate any reservation as precisely and as narrowly as possible in order to ensure that no reservation is incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention or otherwise contrary to international treaty law, to review their reservations on a regular basis with a view to withdrawing them, and to withdraw reservations that are contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention or that are otherwise incompatible with international treaty law; 6. Requests the States parties to the Convention that have not yet done so to consider the possibility of making the declaration provided for in article 14 of the Convention; 7. Decides to consider, at its fifty-seventh session, under the item entitled “Elimination of racism and racial discrimination”, the reports of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on its fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth and its sixtieth and sixty-first sessions, the report of the Secretary-General on the financial 9 4 A/55/203.