Reporting procedure
A State party must submit its first report within one year after it has ratified or acceded to the Convention. Subsequent reports must be submitted at least every four years or whenever the Committee so requests.
To consider States parties’ reports adequately, the Committee established a pre-sessional working group with the mandate to consider periodic reports. The pre-sessional working groups are composed of five members of the Committee who prepare lists of issues and questions to be sent in advance to the reporting State . This enables reporting States to prepare replies for pres- entation at the session and thus contribute to a speedier consideration of the second and subsequent reports.
The Committee has established two standing working groups which meet during the regular session to consider ways and means of improving the work of the Committee and of implementing article 21 of the Convention under which the Committee may issue suggestions and recommendations on imple- mentation of  the Convention.
The consideration of reports by the Committee takes place in public session, whereas the adoption of the concluding observations, intended to guide the State Party in the preparation of its next report, is subsequently held in pri- vate. State representatives are given the opportunity to introduce the report orally and members then raise questions relating to specific articles of the Convention. They focus on the actual position of women in society in an effort to understand the true extent of the problem of discrimination. The Committee will accordingly request specific information on the position of women from a variety of sources.
Following consideration of the report in public session, the Committee pro- ceeds to draft and adopt its “Comments” in a series of private sessions. The Comments enter the public domain once adopted. They are immediately sent to the State party and included in the annual report to the General Assembly. The report is also submitted to the Commission on the Status of Women.