What
is an Optional Protocol?
An optional
protocol is a treaty that complements and adds to an existing
human rights treaty. For this reason, only States that have already
agreed to be bound by a parent treaty may be considered as parties
to optional protocols.
There are
only two kinds of optional protocols:
Most optional
protocols establish grievance procedures by which individuals
and groups of individuals can file formal complaints in cases
where States have violated rights set forth in a human rights
treaty. In this connection, when an optional protocol creates
one or more enforcement mechanisms, the monitoring body established
by the parent treaty administers these. It is important to note
that by means of complaints and inquiry procedures, treaty bodies
are further enabled to elaborate on the meaning of the provisions
of the parent convention/covenant and contribute to the development
of international jurisprudence on the subject of the treaty.
The majority
of UN human rights treaties have optional protocols attached.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
has two optional protocols, the first which enables individual
complaints to be brought to the Human Rights Committee, while
the second, as mentioned, deals with the death penalty. Further,
the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) have
articles enabling individual communications. In fact, CAT also
has an inquiries procedure that enables its Committee to investigate
gross and systematic violations.
Although it
is important to keep all optional protocols in mind, this website
focuses on the OP-CEDAW.
