E/1999/27 E/CN.6/1999/10 realization and promotion of the human rights of women by putting an end to discrimination against women in all its forms. “Regarding article 9, paragraph 2, it is our view that the term ‘inform’ should be understood as a part of a process of interaction between the States Parties and the Committee under the inquiry procedure.” Egypt “The delegation of Egypt hopes that the adoption of the draft optional protocol will be an important step in promoting the role of the General Assembly of the United Nations in enhancing the rule of law in the international community and in strengthening the rights of women at the threshold of the third millennium. At the same time, Egypt’s delegation would like on this important occasion to state a number of positions of principle in the clearest possible terms. “1. With regard to article 2, the delegation of Egypt stresses that allowing the submission of communications on behalf of individuals or groups of individuals, as this article does, must be conditional on their being exceptional and compelling circumstances in which it is not possible to obtain the consent of the victim to the submission of such communications. The term ‘groups of individuals’ means requiring that each individual in the group should be identified separately. “2. With regard to paragraph 1 of article 8, the delegation of Egypt affirms the understanding that prevailed in the Working Group, namely that the reference to grave violations, using the plural form, means the repeated occurrence of such violations. “3. With reference to article 11, the delegation of Egypt stresses that the duty of States to ensure that victims or their representatives submitting communications are not subjected to ill-treatment or intimidation should be within the limits set by national legislation. “4. The delegation of Egypt has agreed to the inclusion of article 17 in view of the protocol’s optional and procedural character, so that it cannot be adduced as a precedent. “The delegation of Egypt requests that this statement be included in the official documents relating to the protocol.” Germany (on behalf of the European Union and associated countries) “I have the honour to present this statement in relation to articles 2 and 8 of this optional protocol on behalf of the delegations of the member States of the European Union, and on behalf of the delegations of the Central and Eastern European countries association with the European Union, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the associated country Cyprus, as well as the EFTA country of Switzerland and the EFTA countries members of the EEA, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway: “(a) The delegations referred to above understand the second sentence of article 2 in the light of the practice of existing human rights treaty bodies, as reflected in their rules of procedure, namely the rules of procedure of the Human Rights Committee, rule 90 (b), the rules of procedure of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Rule 91 (b), and the rules of procedure of the Committee against Torture, Rule 107 (1) (b). 63