Optional Protocol Enters into Force
22 December 2000
Klageorgan trådte i kraft
den 22. december år 2000
In a landmark
decision for women, the General Assembly, acting without
a vote, adopted on 6 October 1999 a 21-article Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms
of Discrimination against Women and called on all States
parties to the Convention to become party to the new instrument
as soon as possible.
By ratifying
the Optional Protocol, a State recognizes the competence
of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women -- the body that monitors States parties' compliance
with the Convention -- to receive and consider complaints
from individuals or groups within its jurisdiction.
The Optional
Protocol entered into force on 22 December 2000, following
the ratification of the tenth State party to the Convention.
The entry into force of the Optional Protocol puts it on
an equal footing with International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention against
Torture and other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment, which all have communications procedures.
The inquiry procedure is the equivalent of that under the
Convention against Torture.
The Protocol
contains two procedures: (1) A communications procedure
allows individual women, or groups of women, to submit claims
of violations of rights protected under the Convention to
the Committee. The Protocol establishes that in order for
individual communications to be admitted for consideration
by the Committee, a number of criteria must be met, including
those domestic remedies must have been exhausted. (2) The
Protocol also creates an inquiry procedure enabling the
Committee to initiate inquiries into situations of grave
or systematic violations of women’s rights. In either case,
States must be party to the Convention and the Protocol.
The Protocol includes an "opt-out clause", allowing States
upon ratification or accession to declare that they do not
accept the inquiry procedure. Article 17 of the Protocol
explicitly provides that no reservations may be entered
to its terms.
