What is the CEDAW Optional Protocol?

The Optional Protocol (OP) comprises two mechanisms, one of which is a communications procedure that allows individual women or groups of women to submit, directly or through a representative, claims of rights violations under the CEDAW. The second mechanism is an inquiry procedure, through which the CEDAW Committee launches an investigation into grave or systemic violations.

The communications procedure has several thresholds that must be met before the Committee will consider the case:

• That the claim be submitted directly by the victim or groups of victims whose rights under CEDAW have been violated or by other individuals or groups filing on behalf of the victims.
• An individual or group intending to file on behalf of others must present evidence of the victim’s consent to the communication, or give reasons that justify submitting the communication without her consent.
• The communication must relate to rights “set forth in the Convention.”
• All available national remedies must have been pursued prior to submitting the communication.

When a communication meets the threshold requirements, it will go to the Committee’s Working Group on communications, who will inform the State Party that it has six months to respond with its arguments about whether the threshold requirements have been satisfied and the merits of the claim.

The Working Group will review all the information provided by the victim and the State Party, and based on their review, the Committee will adopt views and recommendations deciding whether a violation has occurred, and if so, identifying the steps that must be taken to provide a remedy. Within six months, the State Part must give a written response to the Committee’s views, describing any remedial steps it has taken.

The inquiry procedure requires that:

• The violation be grave or systematic and;
• That the information the Committee considers in deciding to begin an inquiry be reliable.

“Grave” refers to the severity of the violation and is likely to be interpreted by the Committee to mean violations of the right to life and integrity of the person. The Committee does not have to wait to receive a request for an inquiry, but can decide to initiate one whenever reliable information pointing to the existence of grave or systemic violations comes to its attention. Reliable information can include press reports, NGO reports, and information from other UN bodies.

The Committee will try to secure the cooperation of the State Party but can conduct an inquiry without the consent of the State Party; however consent must be given for the Committee to carry out an on-site visit. If the State Party does consent, the Committee will visit, interview victims, witnesses, experts, and government official to determine facts.

The results of this information-gathering process will be reviewed by the Committee, which will then adopt findings about whether a violation has occurred and comments identifying actions to be taken by the State Party if a violation has occurred. A summary of the Committee’s activities and its findings will be published, and the State Party must respond with “observations” within sic months.

How Can It Be Used

Women are all too familiar with the limitations of national courts as a means of securing their rights. Can an international procedure, which is even more removed from local realities, be of practical use to women? This question is raised by activists again and again in discussions of the procedures now available for bringing cases under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (the Committee).

The answer seems to be yes - when they are used as one of a series of strategies; an approach which holds true for most international human rights procedures. This overview, produced by Women’s Human Rights net, examines how these new procedures, which are established in a supplementary treaty to CEDAW called the Optional Protocol (OP), might best be used to benefit women.

Click here to read the report:
Report