Open-ended Working Group to explore the possibility of elaborating an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Latest

Proposal for a draft optional protocol prepared by the Chairperson of the Working Group

Mandate

At its 11th session, on 17June 2009, the Council adopted resolution A/HRC/RES/11/1 [E F S A C R] by which it decided to establish an Open-ended Working Group to explore the possibility of elaborating an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to provide a communications procedure complementary to the reporting procedure under the Convention.

At its 13th session, on 24 March 2010, the Council the Council adopted resolution A/HRC/RES/13/3 [E F S A C R ] by which it decided to extend the mandate of the Working Group until the seventeenth session of the Council. It also decided to mandate the Working Group to elaborate an optional protocol and requested the Chairperson of the Working Group to prepare a proposal for a draft optional protocol

Background

At present, five of the human rights treaty bodies (CERD, CCPR, CAT, CEDAW and CRPD)  may under particular circumstances, consider communications from individuals alleging having been victims of violations of their rights under the respective treaties. Some of them can undertake inquiries in cases of grave or systematic violations of the treaty in question (CAT, CEDAW, CRPD).

The Convention on Migrant Workers also contains a provision allowing individual communications to be considered by the CMW. This provision will become operative when ten States parties have made the necessary declaration under article 77.

Two instruments not yet entered into force, i.e. the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances also provide the respective treaty bodies with the mandate to examine individual complaints.