- 75 - protocol. The Committee also decided to invite representatives of States parties to attend that meeting and to take part in the discussion. The Committee requested Mr. P. Alston to submit a revised version of his report on a draft optional protocol not later than 1 March 1996. Secretariat working papers on the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women 384. The Committee took note of two working papers prepared by the Secretariat, dealing with the implications for the work of the Committee of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development (A/CONF.166/9, chap. I) adopted by the World Summit for Social Development, and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women. The Committee regards these documents as a useful basis for discussion of the issues concerned at its next sessions. It therefore requests the Secretariat to make them available in all working languages for its May 1996 session. Publication of the Committee’s annual report 385. The Committee expresses its appreciation to the Secretariat for the timely publication of its annual report, which was issued prior to its twelfth session (May 1995) following the recommendation adopted by the Committee at its eleventh session. The Committee hopes that this encouraging practice will continue and calls upon the relevant services to do their utmost to ensure publication of its report immediately after its adoption in December so that it may be made available to the Commission on Human Rights at its session now scheduled to be held in March-April. United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) 386. The Committee emphasizes the importance which it attaches to the effective realization of the right to housing as enshrined in article 11, paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It has followed with great attention the preparatory process for the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), to be held at Istanbul in June 1996, especially the debate with regard to the right to housing. At its twelfth session, the Committee appointed Mr. P. Texier to draft a position paper on that issue for the Committee’s consideration at its thirteenth session. That statement was adopted by the Committee at its thirteenth session and is contained in annex VIII to the present report. The Committee decided to transmit that statement, together with a letter sent by its Chairperson to Mr. Wally N’Dow, Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, to the Preparatory Committee for the Conference at its next session and to the Conference itself. 387. In view of the importance of the Conference and the central relevance of the Covenant to its work, the Committee designated Mr. P. Texier to represent it at the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and asked the Secretariat to make all the necessary arrangements to facilitate his attendance.