Stage 2: The admissibility test

Step 2: The CEDAW Committee determines the admissibility of the communication

At this point, given that the communication satisfies the requirements of submission, the CEDAW Committee must decide whether the communication is admissible. Article 4 of the OP-CEDAW [Rule 67]* sets out the two main criteria by which the CEDAW Committee determines the admissibility of a communication. While these criteria mandate concrete conditions that must be established before the complaint can go on to be heard on its merits, the CEDAW Committee is allowed some amount of discretion in its admissibility rulings based on the circumstances of the communications.

• Exhaustion of domestic remedies:
  By ensuring that domestic remedies for women who experience violations of their human rights are put in place, governments must further contribute to making the human rights of women matter in law, policy and practice. Article 4 (1) requires that a complainant must attempt to seek a remedy for the violation within a State party’s existing system of remedies (i.e. the State party’s own judicial system). Only when these remedies have been exhausted and the complainant has yet to receive a remedy for the alleged violation can she submit a complaint to the Committee.

• Exception to exhaustion of domestic remedies:
  Article 4(1) allows the CEDAW Committee to make exceptions to the requirement of exhaustion of domestic remedies if “the application of such remedies is unreasonably prolonged or unlikely to bring effective relief.”

• Inadmissibility criteria:
  Article 4(2) establishes the five criteria by which a complaint may be deemed inadmissible by the CEDAW Committee. These criteria have been framed in a negative construction to enable quick identification of complaints that should be excluded from consideration by the CEDAW Committee. Criteria (i) and (v) provide limited scope for the CEDAW Committee’s discretion as they are matters of truth or fact. Criteria (ii) to (iv) allow for varying amounts of discretion by the CEDAW Committee given the varied nature and circumstances that complaints are likely to take.

Grounds for inadmissibility of a communication are as follows: Art 4(2)(i): The same matter has already been examined by the CEDAW Committee or has been or is being examined under a procedure of another international investigation or settlement; Art 4(2)(ii): It is incompatible with the provisions of the CEDAW Convention; Art 4(2)(iii): It is manifestly ill-founded or not sufficiently substantiated; Art 4(2)(iv): It is an abuse of the right to submit a communication; Art 4(2)(v): The facts that are the subject of the communication occurred prior to the entry into force of this OP-CEDAW for the State party concerned unless those facts continued after that date.

Note: * These refer to the Rules of Procedure.