E/1999/27 E/CN.6/1999/10 Annex II Report of 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 Chairperson: Ms. Aloisia Wörgetter (Austria) 1. In accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1995/29 of 24 July 1995, 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 met as an in-session open-ended working group of the Commission on the Status of Women at its fortythird session. By its decisions 1996/240 of 22 July 1996 and 1997/227 of 21 July 1997, the Council renewed the mandate of the Working Group so that it might continue its work, and authorized it to meet in parallel with the Commission at its forty-first session, and at its fortysecond and forty-third sessions, respectively. The Council also decided to invite a representative of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to attend those meetings as a resource person. 2. Aloisia Wörgetter (Austria) continued to serve as Chairperson of the Working Group. 3. The Working Group met from 1 to 11 March 1999. It held three meetings (1st to 3rd) and a number of informal meetings. It had before it the following documents for information: (a) Report of the Secretary-General containing an annotated comparison of the draft optional protocol and the amendments proposed thereto with the provisions of existing international human rights instruments, taking into account the report of the Working Group to the Commission at its forty-first session (E/CN.6/1998/7); (b) Report of the Secretary-General containing a comparative summary of existing communications and inquiry procedures and practices under international human rights instruments and under the Charter of the United Nations (E/CN.6/1997/4); (c) Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at its eighteenth and nineteenth sessions;a (d) Note by the Secretary-General transmitting the results of the twentieth session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (E/CN.6/1999/CRP.1). 4. At the 1st meeting, on 1 March, the Chairperson opened the meeting and made a statement. 5. At the same meeting, the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women made an introductory statement. 6. Also at the same meeting, a statement was made by the Federal Minister for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, of Germany, on behalf of the European Union, the Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) and the associated country Cyprus as well as a country member of the European Free Trade Association that is also a member of the European Economic Association, namely, Iceland, which aligned themselves with the statement. A statement was also made by the DirectorGeneral of the Department of Women’s Affairs of Namibia. a 56 Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-third Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/53/38/Rev.1).