The Human Rights Committee this week discussed the possibility of taking special decisions to request a State party to submit a brief report whenever the Committee deemed it necessary. The Committee was of the view that in the intervals between the submission of periodic reports, specific situations could arise in a particular State which needed close examination.

As the Committee focused on its methods of work, it also suggested the possibility of considering the situation of human rights in States parties which were in serious default of their obligations under article 40 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. That suggestion was aimed at States parties with initial or periodic reports overdue for more than five years or with more than one report overdue.