What is the Optional Protocol?
A number of core international human rights treaties have protocols that States parties can sign on to. These Optional Protocols are treaties in their own right, and are open to signature, accession or ratification by countries who are party to the main treaty. Optional Protocols create avenues for individuals to make complaints about the violation of their rights to a treaty body, or empower a treaty body to conduct inquiries on areas of concern. In 1999, the UN General Assembly adopted CEDAW’s Optional Protocol (OP-CEDAW), which came into force the following year. OP-CEDAW includes an inquiry procedure and a complaints procedure. An inquiry procedure enables the CEDAW Committee to conduct inquiries into serious and systematic abuses of women’s human rights in countries that become States parties to the Optional Protocol. The complaints procedure, also known as the communications procedure, gives individuals and groups of women the right to petition or the right to complain to the CED
A number of core international human rights treaties have protocols that States parties can sign on to. These Optional Protocols are treaties in their own right, and are open to signature, accession or ratification by countries who are party to the main treaty. Optional Protocols create avenues for individuals to make complaints about the violation of their rights to a treaty body, or empower a treaty body to conduct inquiries on areas of concern. In 1999, the UN General Assembly adopted CEDAW’s Optional Protocol (OP-CEDAW), which came into force the following year. OP-CEDAW includes an inquiry procedure and a complaints procedure. An inquiry procedure enables the CEDAW Committee to conduct inquiries into serious and systematic abuses of women’s human rights in countries that become States parties to the Optional Protocol. The complaints procedure, also known as the communications procedure, gives individuals and groups of women the right to petition or the right to complain to the CED
