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Fact Sheet No.7/Rev.1, Complaint ProceduresProcedure under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The 1503 procedure of the Commission on Human Rights The procedure of the Commission on the Status of Women
Anyone may bring a human rights problem to the attention of the United Nations and thousands of people around the world do so every year. What kinds of complaints about alleged human rights violations does the United Nations receive and how does it deal with them? This Fact Sheet explains the procedures open to individuals and groups who want the United Nations to take action on a human rights situation of concern to them. It is through individual complaints that human rights are given concrete meaning. In the adjudication of individual cases, international norms that may otherwise seem general and abstract are put into practical effect. When applied to a person’s real-life situation, the standards contained in international human rights treaties find their most direct application. The resulting body of decisions may guide States, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals in interpreting the contemporary meaning of the texts concerned. Individuals have only relatively recently acquired the means to vindicate their rights at the international level. This Fact Sheet examines complaints that are brought directly under international human rights treaties and complaints filed through special procedures with the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on the Status of Women.[1] Since the early 1970s international complaint mechanisms have developed apace, and you can now bring claims to the United Nations concerning violations of your rights under four of the six so-called “core” human rights treaties. The four treaties concern: (i) civil and political rights, set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; (ii) torture and cruel treatment, defined in the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; (iii) racial discrimination, proscribed by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; and (iv) sex discrimination, defined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Each of these treaties establishes a quasi-judicial committee to examine complaints. The complaint mechanisms are designed to be uncomplicated and accessible to the layperson. You do not need to be a lawyer or even familiar with legal and technical terms to bring a complaint before the bodies concerned. On the contrary, the system is intended to be as straightforward as possible. The complaint mechanisms under individual treaties are complemented by complaint procedures before the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on the Status of Women. These two procedures, involving political bodies composed of State representatives, are among the oldest in the United Nations system. They have a different focus from complaints under the international treaties, which provide individual redress through quasi-judicial mechanisms. Complaints to the Commissions focus on more systematic patterns and trends of human rights violations and may be brought against any country in the world. As with the procedures under the treaties, the Commission mechanisms seek to avoid legal and technical terms and procedures and are open to everybody. The Fact Sheet is divided into two parts. The first examines complaint procedures under the individual treaties in greater detail and the second concentrates on the Commissions. You should be aware that these mechanisms operate on the basis of diverse mandates and procedures. As a result, each mechanism has a variety of advantages and disadvantages. You may wish to compare them before electing where your claim may be considered most fruitfully. Part 1: Complaints under the international human rights treatiesOverviewThis part of the Fact Sheet explains the complaint mechanisms that are currently available under the four international human rights treaties: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture, the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. A human rights treaty is a formal document negotiated by States, which imposes binding obligations to protect and promote rights and freedoms on States parties that officially accept it (commonly through “ratification”). The full texts of the treaties are accessible on the web site of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) at the following address: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/intlinst.htm. [2] The basic concept is that anyone may bring a complaint alleging a violation of treaty rights to the body of experts set up by the treaty for quasi-judicial adjudication. These “treaty bodies”, as they are often called, are committees composed of independent experts elected by States parties to the relevant treaty. They are tasked with monitoring implementation in States parties of the rights set forth in the treaties and with deciding on complaints brought against those States. While there are some procedural variations between the four mechanisms, their design and operation are very similar. Accordingly, what follows is a general description of the typical features of a complaint under any of the four treaties. Readers should then refer to the descriptions of the individual treaties, which identify aspects differing from the general norm. Against whom can a complaint under a treaty be brought?A complaint under one of the four treaties can be brought only against a State that satisfies two conditions. First, it must be a party to the treaty in question, having ratified or otherwise accepted it. (To check whether a State is a party to the treaty, consult the Treaty Body database on the OHCHR web site. To access the database, click on Documents on the home page followed by Treaty body database, Ratifications and reservations and States parties; then check the relevant country. Alternatively, you may contact the Petitions Team or the Division for the Advancement of Women, depending on the treaty, via the contact details listed at the end of this part of the Fact Sheet.) Second, the State party must have recognized the competence of the committee established under the relevant treaty to consider complaints from individuals. In the case of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, a State recognizes the Committee’s competence by becoming a party to a separate treaty: the First Optional Protocol to the Covenant or the Optional Protocol to the Convention. (To see the text of the Protocols and to check whether a State is a party to either or both, consult the OHCHR web site as described above.) In the case of the Convention against Torture and the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, States recognize the Committee’s competence by making a declaration to that effect under a specific article of the Convention, articles 22 and 14 respectively. (To check whether a State has made either of these declarations, access the OHCHR web site as described above, clicking on Declarations on procedural articles once you have selected the relevant State.) Who can bring a complaint?Anyone can lodge a complaint with a committee against a State that satisfies these two conditions, claiming that his or her rights under the relevant treaty have been violated. It is not necessary to have a lawyer prepare your case, though legal advice usually improves the quality of the submissions. Be aware, however, that legal aid is not provided under the procedures. You may also bring a claim on behalf of another person on condition that you obtain his or her written consent. In certain cases, you may bring a case without such consent. For example, where parents bring cases on behalf of young children or guardians on behalf of persons unable to give formal consent, or where a person is in prison without access to the outside world, the relevant committee will not require formal authorization to lodge a complaint on another’s behalf. What information do you need to provide in your complaint?A complaint to a committee, also called a “communication” or a “petition”, need not take any particular form. While the model complaint form[3] and guidelines[4] appended to this Fact Sheet (as annexes 1 and 2) focus on specific information, any correspondence supplying the necessary particulars will suffice. Your claim should be in writing and signed.[5] It should provide basic personal information - your name, nationality and date of birth - and specify the State party against which your complaint is directed. If you are bringing the claim on behalf of another person, you should provide proof of their consent, as noted above, or state clearly why such consent cannot be provided. You should set out, in chronological order, all the facts on which your claim is based. A crucial requirement is that your account is as complete as possible and that the complaint contains all information relevant to your case. You should also detail the steps you have taken to exhaust the remedies available in your country, that is steps taken before your country’s local courts and authorities. You should state whether you have submitted your case to another means of international investigation or settlement. On these two matters, see the section entitled “The admissibility of your case” below for further important details. Lastly, you should state why you consider that the facts you have outlined constitute a violation of the treaty in question. It is helpful, though not strictly necessary, for you to identify the articles of the treaty that have allegedly been violated. You should provide this information in one of the secretariat’s working languages. In addition, you should supply all documents of relevance to your claims and arguments, especially administrative or judicial decisions on your claim by national authorities. It is also helpful if you provide copies of relevant national laws. If they are not in an official language of the committee’s secretariat, consideration of your complaint will be speeded up if you can arrange for a translation (either full or summary). If your complaint lacks essential information, you will be contacted by the secretariat with a request for the additional details. When can you make a complaint under the human rights treaties?In general, there is no formal time limit after the date of the alleged violation for filing a complaint under the relevant treaties. It is usually appropriate, however, to submit your complaint as soon as possible after you have exhausted domestic remedies. Delay in submitting your case may also make it difficult for the State party to respond properly. In exceptional cases, submission after a protracted period may result in your case being considered inadmissible by the committee in question. The procedureIf your complaint contains the essential elements outlined above, your case is registered, that is to say formally listed as a case for consideration by the relevant committee. You will receive advice of registration. At that point, the case is transmitted to the State party concerned to give it an opportunity to comment. The State is requested to submit its observations within a set time frame. The two major stages in any case are known as the “admissibility” stage and the “merits” stage. The “admissibility” of a case refers to the formal requirements that your complaint must satisfy before the relevant committee can consider its substance. The “merits” of the case are the substance, on the basis of which the committee decides whether or not your rights under a treaty have been violated. These stages are described in greater detail below. The time within which the State is required to respond to your complaint varies between procedures and is also specified below in the sections dealing with them individually. Once the State replies to your submission, you are offered an opportunity to comment. Again, the time frames vary somewhat between procedures (see below for details). At that point, the case is ready for a decision by the relevant committee. If the State party fails to respond to your complaint, you are not disadvantaged. Reminders are sent to the State party and if there is still no response, the committee takes a decision on your case on the basis of your original complaint. Special circumstances of urgency or sensitivityEach committee has the facility to take urgent action where irreparable harm would otherwise be suffered before the case is examined in the usual course. The basis for such interim action by individual committees is set out below for each procedure. The common feature is that the committee in question may, at any stage before the case is considered, issue a request to the State party for what are known as “interim measures” in order to prevent any irreparable harm. Typically, such requests are issued to prevent actions that cannot later be undone, for example the execution of a death sentence or the deportation of an individual facing a risk of torture. If you wish the committee to consider a request for interim measures, it is advisable to state this explicitly. In any case, you should identify as carefully and comprehensively as possible the reasons why you consider such action to be necessary. If there are particularly sensitive matters of a private or personal nature that emerge in the complaint, you may request that the committee suppress identifying elements in its final decision so that your identity does not become public. The committee may also, of its own motion, suppress these or other matters in the course of consideration of the complaint. The admissibility of your caseBefore the committee to which you have brought your case can consider its merits or substance, it must be satisfied that the claim meets the formal requirements of admissibility. When examining admissibility, the committee may consider one or several of the following factors: · If you are acting on behalf of another person, have you obtained sufficient authorization or are you otherwise justified in doing so? · Are you (or the person on whose behalf you are bringing the complaint) a victim of the alleged violation? You must show that you are personally and directly affected by the law, policy, practice, act or omission of the State party which you claim has violated or is violating your rights. It is not sufficient simply to challenge a law or State policy or practice in the abstract (a so-called actio popularis) without demonstrating how you are individually a victim of the law, policy or practice in question. · Is your complaint compatible with the provisions of the treaty invoked? The alleged violation must relate to a right actually protected by the treaty. If you have filed a complaint under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, for example, you cannot claim a violation of the right to property since the Covenant does not protect that right. In such a case, your claim would be, in legal terms, inadmissible ratione materiae. · Is your complaint sufficiently substantiated? If the relevant committee considers, in the light of the information before it from all sides, that you have not sufficiently developed the facts of your complaint or the arguments for a violation of the Covenant, it may reject the claim as insufficiently substantiated for the purposes of admissibility. This ground is analogous to the rejection of a case by other courts, international and domestic, as “manifestly ill-founded”. · Does your complaint relate to events that occurred prior to the entry into force of the complaint mechanism for your State? As a rule, a committee does not examine complaints dating from a period prior to this date and your complaint is regarded, in legal terms, as inadmissible ratione temporis. There are, however, exceptions. In cases where the effects of the event in question have extended into the period covered by the complaint mechanism, a committee may consider the overall circumstances. Further details are given in the sections on individual procedures. · Have you exhausted all domestic remedies? A cardinal principle governing the admissibility of a complaint is that you must, in general, have exhausted all remedies in your own State before bringing a claim to a committee. This usually includes pursuing your claim through the local court system, and you should be aware that mere doubts about the effectiveness of such action do not, in the committees’ view, dispense with this requirement. There are, however, limited exceptions to this rule. If the exhaustion of remedies would be unreasonably prolonged, or if they would plainly be ineffective (if, for example, the law in your State is quite clear on the point at issue) or if the remedies are otherwise unavailable to you (owing, for example, to denial of legal aid in a criminal case), you may not be required to exhaust domestic remedies. You should, however, give detailed reasons why the general rule should not apply. On the issue of exhaustion of domestic remedies, you should describe in your original complaint the efforts you have made to exhaust local remedies, specifying the claims advanced before the national authorities and the dates and outcome of the proceedings, or alternatively stating why any exception should apply. · Is your claim an abuse of the complaints process? In rare cases, the committees may consider a case to be a frivolous, vexatious or otherwise inappropriate use of the complaint procedure and reject it as inadmissible, for example if you bring repeated claims to the committee on the same issue although they have already been dismissed. · Is your complaint being examined under another mechanism of international settlement? If you have submitted the same claim to another treaty body or to a regional mechanism such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights or the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights,[6] the committees cannot examine your complaint, the aim being to avoid unnecessary duplication at the international level. This is another issue of admissibility that you should cover in your original complaint, describing any claims you have made and specifying the body to which you applied, the date and the outcome. · Is your complaint precluded by a reservation the State has made to the Optional Protocol?[7] A State may have entered a procedural reservation to the complaint mechanism limiting the committee’s competence to examine certain communications. For example, States may preclude a committee’s consideration of claims that have in the past been considered by another international mechanism. In very rare cases, a committee may decide that a particular reservation is impermissible and consider the communication notwithstanding the purported reservation. (The text of reservations may be found in the Treaty Body database described above.) If you think there is a risk that your claim may be considered inadmissible on one of these grounds, it is helpful to present your counterarguments in the initial complaint. In any event, the State party, when responding to your complaint, will probably argue that your case is inadmissible if it considers that one of these grounds may apply. You will then be able to present your view when commenting on the State party’s submissions. The merits of your caseOnce a committee decides your case is admissible, it proceeds to consider the merits of your complaint, stating its reasons for concluding that a violation has or has not occurred under the various articles it considers applicable. A number of States have also entered substantive reservations that may limit the scope of the human rights obligations they assume under the treaties.[8] (The text of any reservations or declarations entered may be accessed in the Treaty Body database on the OHCHR web site as described above. Be sure to check that a reservation has not been subsequently withdrawn, as in such cases the State party will have accepted, in the meantime, the full obligation imposed by the relevant article.) In most cases, a committee will decline to consider complaints falling within areas covered by a reservation, though in exceptional circumstances, as noted above, it may find a reservation impermissible and consider the case despite the purported reservation. To form an idea of what a committee considers to be the scope of the rights contained in the treaty for which it is responsible, you may look at its previous decisions, its so-called “General Comments” expanding on the meaning of various articles, and its concluding observations on reports submitted periodically by States parties to the treaty concerned. These documents are accessible on the OHCHR web site through the Treaty Body database. There are also numerous academic articles and textbooks on the jurisprudence of the various committees that may be of assistance. Consideration of your caseThe committees consider each case in closed session. Although some have provisions for oral components of proceedings in their rules of procedure,[9] the practice has been to consider complaints on the basis of the written information supplied by the complainant and the State party. Accordingly, it has not been the practice to receive oral submissions from the parties or audio or audio-visual evidence (such as audio cassettes or videotapes). Nor do the committees go beyond the information provided by the parties to seek independent verification of the facts. It follows that they do not consider briefs provided by third parties (often called amicus briefs). Once the committee takes a decision on your case, it is transmitted to you and the State party simultaneously. One or more committee members may append a separate opinion to the decision if they come to a different conclusion from the majority or perhaps reach the same conclusion but for different reasons. The text of any final decision on the merits of your case or of a decision of inadmissibility will be posted on the OHCHR’s web site as part of the committee’s jurisprudence at the following address: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/8/jurispr.htm. What happens once a committee decides your case?It should be noted at the outset that there is no appeal against committee decisions and that, as a rule, the decisions are final. What happens to your case subsequently depends on the nature of the decision taken.
Procedure
under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights
|
| Petitions
Team Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights United Nations Office at Geneva 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland | |
| Fax | + 41 22 9179022 (particularly for urgent matters) |
| tb-petitions.hchr@unog.ch |
For complaints to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, direct your correspondence and inquiries to:
| Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women c/o Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs United Nations Secretariat 2 United Nations Plaza DC-2/12th Floor New York, NY 10017 United States of America | |
| Fax | + 1-212-963-3463 |
The procedure before the Commission on Human Rights, called the 1503 procedure after the resolution of the Economic and Social Council whereby it was established,[14] is the oldest human rights complaint mechanism in the United Nations system. Under this procedure the Commission, a political body composed of State representatives, generally deals with situations in countries rather than individual complaints.[15]
The procedure was substantially amended in 2000 by the Economic and Social Council to make it more efficient, to facilitate dialogue with the Governments concerned and to provide for a more meaningful debate in the final stages of a complaint before the Commission on Human Rights.[16] It is this so-called revised 1503 procedure that is explained below.
Under the 1503 procedure, the Commission has the mandate to examine a consistent pattern of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms occurring in any country of the world. Any individual or group claiming to be the victim of such human rights violations may submit a complaint, as may any other person or group with direct and reliable knowledge of such violations. Where an NGO submits a complaint, it must be acting in good faith and in accordance with recognized principles of human rights. The organization should also have reliable direct evidence of the situation it is describing.
First, you must provide identifying particulars since a complaint cannot be anonymous. You should direct your complaint to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights or the United Nations, ideally specifying that you wish the complaint to be dealt with under the 1503 procedure. You should set out the purpose of the complaint and the rights alleged to have been violated. You may submit this material by normal mail, facsimile message or e-mail.[17]
Each complaint should describe the relevant facts in as much detail as possible, providing names of alleged victims, dates, locations and other evidence. As the procedure primarily examines patterns of violations rather than individual violations as such, it is advisable for a complaint not simply to focus on the facts of an individual’s case but, if possible, to expand on a group or series of such cases. It is not sufficient to rely on mass media reports; specific evidence should be provided. In short, there must be reasonable grounds to infer from the material that the alleged pattern of gross human rights violations exists.
Various conditions need to be met for your complaint to be considered admissible. If it does not satisfy these criteria, it may be rejected.
Your complaint should be submitted within a reasonable time following the exhaustion of available remedies in your own country. You should ideally show that you have exhausted such remedies. Your complaint should not contain abusive or insulting language. The submission of complaints overlapping with other procedures in the United Nations system and the duplication of complaints already considered by such procedures should be avoided. Lastly, no complaint should be politically motivated or run counter to the principles of the United Nations.
You may submit a complaint at any time. If your complaint gets through the initial screening process described below, it will be considered by the formal 1503 procedure bodies which meet annually.
The Secretariat screens all complaints as they arrive. Your complaint may be rejected as manifestly ill-founded by the Secretariat acting jointly with the Chairperson of the so-called Working Group on Communications (see step 2 below). If your complaint makes it to the next stage of the process, it will be acknowledged and forwarded to the Government concerned for comment. Government replies remain confidential and are not communicated to you.
In late summer (usually August),[18] the Working Group on Communications meets to assess complaints that have passed the initial screening stage over the last year and have been forwarded to the Government concerned for comment at least twelve weeks before the meeting of the Working Group. It examines complaints and any replies received from Governments with a view to bringing to the attention of the Working Group on Situations any situations that appear to reveal a consistent pattern of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Working Group comprises five members of the Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. It may decide to hold over a communication to obtain replies or further information from the Governments concerned or for other reasons.
The proceedings of the Working Group are confidential. They are also conducted on the basis of written material only, so that neither Governments nor complainants appear before it. It should be noted that most complaints fail to proceed beyond this point. Governments are advised of the decisions of the Working Group but you are not.
Early in the following year (usually February), the Working Group on Situations meets to consider situations referred to it by the Working Group on Communications.[19] It also considers any situations of which the Commission on Human Rights itself remains seized from its previous session (see the next stage in the process). The Working Group decides whether, in the light of all the material from the previous stages of the process, the situation referred to it appears to reveal a consistent pattern of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Group has five members, who are usually nominated by the regional groups of States within the Commission on Human Rights in order to ensure equitable geographic distribution.
The Working Group has a variety of options for dealing with the situations before it. It may forward a situation to the Commission, in which case the Working Group usually makes specific recommendations for action. Alternatively, it may decide to keep a situation pending before it or to close the file.
As with the Working Group on Communications, the proceedings of the Working Group on Situations are confidential and based on written material only, so that neither Governments nor complainants appear before it. Governments are advised of the decisions of the Working Group, including any recommendations made to the Commission, but you are not.
Approximately a month after the previous stage (usually March), the Commission on Human Rights, meeting in closed session, considers the situations referred to it by the Working Group on Situations. Representatives of the Governments concerned are invited to address the Commission and answer questions. At a subsequent meeting shortly thereafter, the Commission considers its final decision, again in closed session. Representatives of the Government concerned may also be present at this point.
The Commission has a variety of options for dealing with situations that come before it. It may elect to keep a situation under review in the light of any further information received or it may keep it under review and appoint an independent expert. Alternatively, it may discontinue the matter under the 1503 procedure and take it up instead under a public procedure,[20] or discontinue the matter when no further consideration is warranted. If it wishes, it may also make recommendations to its parent body, the Economic and Social Council.
After the Commission has considered the situations before it, the Chairperson announces at a public meeting the names of the countries examined under the 1503 procedure and those of countries no longer dealt with under the procedure.
Although you must state your name when making a complaint, you may request that it be suppressed if the complaint is forwarded to the Government concerned. All material provided by individuals and Governments, as well as the decisions taken at the various stages of the procedure, remain confidential and are not made public. This also applies to situations that have been discontinued, unless the Economic and Social Council decides otherwise or the Government concerned expresses the wish that the dossiers be made public. However, while these rules of confidentiality are binding on the United Nations bodies dealing with your complaint, they do not preclude you from disclosing the fact that you have submitted a complaint under the 1503 procedure.
As with all other procedures described in this Fact Sheet, the 1503 procedure has advantages and disadvantages that you should ponder before deciding under which mechanism you may best submit your complaint. The pluses of the 1503 procedure are that you may submit a complaint against any country without needing to check whether it has ratified a particular treaty or limited its obligations under the instrument. Once you have submitted a complaint, you do not have to respond again at a later point with further information – the initial complaint is sufficient. With the 1503 procedure, it is possible for your complaint to reach the highest level of the United Nations human rights machinery, the Commission on Human Rights. It may thus result in very significant pressure being brought to bear upon a State to change laws, policies or practices that infringe internationally guaranteed human rights. Possible drawbacks of the procedure are that you will not be informed of the decisions taken at the various stages of the process or the reasons for them. Nor will you be informed of the relevant Government’s responses to your complaint. You should also be aware that the procedure can be protracted and, unlike the procedures described in Part 1, there is no provision for urgent measures of protection.
For complaints under this procedure, direct your correspondence and inquiries to:
| Commission/Sub-Commission
Team (1503 Procedure) Support Services Branch Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights United Nations Office at Geneva 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland | |
| Fax | + 41 22 9179011 |
| 1503.hchr@unog.ch |
While the 1503 procedure is designed to reveal gross violations of human rights in particular countries, the confidential complaint procedure of the Commission on the Status of Women is designed to identify global trends and patterns concerning women’s rights. It was established pursuant to a series of resolutions of the Economic and Social Council, under which the Commission considers confidential and non-confidential complaints on the status of women. [21] As with the 1503 procedure, its primary aim is not to afford direct redress to victims of human rights violations.
The Commission’s Secretariat receives complaints each year from individuals and organizations. It acknowledges their receipt and briefly describes the procedure to complainants. The Secretariat then summarizes the complaints and sends them to the Governments concerned for comment. Complainants’ names, however, are only divulged to the Governments concerned (and subsequently to the Commission) with the complainant’s express permission.
Complaints are then considered by a Working Group on Communications composed of five members of the Commission on the Status of Women, representing all geographical regions, which meets during the Commission's annual session (usually in the spring). During its private meetings, it considers all communications and the replies of Governments, with a view to bringing to the Commission’s attention those that “appear to reveal a consistent pattern of reliably attested injustice and discriminatory practices against women”. The Working Group then prepares a report for the Commission that “will indicate the categories in which communications are most frequently submitted to the Commission”. Individual complainants are not provided with Governments’ replies or the report of the Working Group.
The Commission on the Status of Women considers the Working Group’s report in a closed meeting. It then reports to the Economic and Social Council, making recommendations, if it sees fit, for action by the Council on the “emerging trends and patterns of communications”. It is not authorized to take any other action.
For complaints to this Commission, direct your correspondence and inquiries to:
Commission on the Status of
Women
c/o Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic
and Social Affairs
(the remaining contact details of the Division are
given at the end of Part 1 above)
[1] A considerable number of other avenues exist for bringing individual complaints, both within the United Nations Secretariat and before organizations forming part of the wider United Nations family such as the International Labour Organization (http://www.ilo.org/) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (www.unesco.org).
[2] If you have difficulty in accessing the OHCHR web site or if the web site has been modified, kindly address your queries to the secretariats of the treaty bodies (addresses at the end of each section).
[3] For complaints under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
[4] For complaints under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
[5] As a signature is required, the complaint cannot be forwarded by electronic mail. You may, however, make informal contact with the committee’s secretariat by electronic mail (see contact details at the end of this Fact Sheet).
[6] This will also apply to complaints before the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights once that body begins to operate.
[7] Reservations are formal statements by which States limit the obligations that they accept under a particular provision of a treaty.
[8] A State may also have entered a declaration which, formally speaking, simply records a State’s understanding of a particular article. A declaration may have the same effect in practice as a reservation and it is the effect of the treaty action in question, rather than its formal name, to which the Committee gives primary attention.
[9] See the descriptions below of the procedures of the Committee against Torture and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
[10] For more information on the Human Rights Committee, see Fact Sheet No.15 in the OHCHR Fact Sheet series.
[11] For more information on the Committee against Torture, see Fact Sheet No.17 in the OHCHR Fact Sheet series.
[12] For more information on the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, see Fact Sheet No. 12 in the OHCHR Fact Sheet series.
[13] For more information on the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, see Fact Sheet No. 24 in the OHCHR Fact Sheet series.
[14] Economic and Social Council resolution 1503 (XLVII) of 27 May 1970.
[15] The Commission on Human Rights is the foundation for a variety of other complaint procedures, including through the Special Rapporteurs whom it appoints to examine specific country situations and thematic areas.
[16] Economic and Social Council resolution 2000/3 of 16 June 2000.
[17] If the complainant’s name is not clear from the e-mail address, it should be specified in the message.
[18] The Working Group on Communications meets for two weeks immediately after the annual session of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
[19] The Working Group on Situations meets for one week, at least a month prior to the annual session of the Commission on Human Rights.
[20] The public procedure is described in Economic and Social Council resolution 1235 (XLII).
[21] Economic and Social Council resolutions 76 (V) of 5 August 1947, 304 I (XI) of 14 and 17 July 1950, 1983/27 of 26 May 1983, 1992/19 of 30 July 1992 and 1993/11 of 27 July 1993.
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