A/HRC/31/74 present there did not appear to be a way to judge the impact of general recommendations. Ms. Crickley responded that though welcome, such an analysis would be a large undertaking requiring considerable resourcing. However, States Parties could be asked how they were implementing the general recommendations, adding that a source for this information could be the “follow up process” of the Committee with States Parties which was creating increased engagement with the Committee and represented a turnaround time of about a year for follow up between the Committee and the given States party. D. Comparison of the relevant procedures of other treaties 74. At its 5th meeting, on 15 July, Simon Walker, Chief of the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Section of the Human Rights Treaties Division (HRTD) at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights presented a comparative overview of the relevant procedures of the treaty bodies. He provided an outline of the procedures of all treaty bodies, stating that the main procedure for all ratifying Member States is the reporting procedure, which is essentially an invitation to the State party to hold a constructive dialogue with the Committee. He discussed this traditional procedure as well as the simplified reporting procedure developed in recent years. In this optional procedure which must be accepted by the State party, the reporting procedure is triggered by the Committee which sends a list of questions to the State party. It is simplified because the State Party is informed in advance about the area on which the Committee will focus during the dialogue. This procedure has been adopted initially by the Human Rights Committee and Committee against Torture, followed by other committees. He explained that General Assembly resolution A/RES/68/268 on strengthening and enhancing the effective functioning of the human rights treaty body system recognised this and encouraged State parties to adopt this procedure. CERD has adopted it and it has sent such a request to certain States parties to see if they are interested in adopting that procedure. Connected to the reporting procedure is the follow up procedure, which not all committees have it but an increasing number now have this procedure. 75. He referred to different procedures under specific United Nations treaty bodies, including the follow-up procedure; the early warning and urgent action procedure; the individual complaint procedure; the inquiry procedure; the inter-State procedure; and, the urgent action procedure. In terms of comparing each of these procedures, he emphasized that the reporting procedure is a constructive dialogue and it applies to all States parties of a particular treaty. It is aimed at considering the implementation of the treaty provisions by its States parties with the view to assisting them to improve the implementation of that treaty. This is different form individual communications which consider alleged specific violations, and deal with different situations. There are, however, other specific procedures, such as the urgent action procedure under the Committee on Enforced Disappearances which are specific to a particularly treaty. 76. With regard to resources, he mentioned that while the General Assembly had adopted these procedures it has not always provided concomitant resources. Resources are particularly needed when a Committee receives reliable information on serious, grave or systematic violations by a State party of the Conventions it monitors, and the inquiry procedure is initiated. He informed that when a committee decides to visit a State party, it requires six weeks of staff intensive work, and that resources have not been provided for this mechanism. In conclusion, in the context of resolution 68/268 and the reduction of extra-budgetary funds is presenting a significant challenge to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and is placing the treaty body system under strain. 77. The European Union representative thanked Mr. Walker for his presentation and noted that ICERD provides for the reporting procedure, the follow up procedure, the urgent 34