Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities, UNICEF

Optional Protocol to the Convention onthe Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesThe States parties to the present Protocol haveagreed as follows:Article 11. A State party to the present Protocol (’State party’)recognizes the competence of the Committee on theRights of Persons with Disabilities (’the Committee’)to receive and consider communications from oron behalf of individuals or groups of individualssubject to its jurisdiction who claim to be victims ofa violation by that State party of the provisions of theConvention.2. No communication shall be received by theCommittee if it concerns a State party to theConvention that is not a party to the present Protocol.Article 2The Committee shall consider a communicationinadmissible when:(a) The communication is anonymous;(b) The communication constitutes an abuse of theright of submission of such communications or isincompatible with the provisions of the Convention;(c) The same matter has already been examined bythe Committee or has been or is being examinedunder another procedure of international investigationor settlement;(d) All available domestic remedies have notbeen exhausted. This shall not be the rule wherethe application of the remedies is unreasonablyprolonged or unlikely to bring effective relief;(e) It is manifestly ill-founded or not sufficientlysubstantiated; or when(f) The facts that are the subject of thecommunication occurred prior to the entry into forceof the present Protocol for the State party concernedunless those facts continued after that date.Article 3Subject to the provisions of article 2 of thepresent Protocol, the Committee shall bring anycommunications submitted to it confidentially to theattention of the State party. Within six months, thereceiving State shall submit to the Committee writtenexplanations or statements clarifying the matter andthe remedy, if any, that may have been taken by thatState.Article 41. At any time after the receipt of a communicationand before a determination on the merits has beenreached, the Committee may transmit to the Stateparty concerned for its urgent consideration a requestthat the State party take such interim measuresas may be necessary to avoid possible irreparabledamage to the victim or victims of the allegedviolation.2. Where the Committee exercises its discretionunder paragraph 1 of this article, this does not imply adetermination on admissibility or on the merits of thecommunication.Article 5The Committee shall hold closed meetings whenexamining communications under the presentProtocol. After examining a communication,the Committee shall forward its suggestionsand recommendations, if any, to the State partyconcerned and to the petitioner.Article 61. If the Committee receives reliable informationindicating grave or systematic violations by a Stateparty of rights set forth in the Convention, theCommittee shall invite that State party to cooperatein the examination of the information and to this endsubmit observations with regard to the informationconcerned.2. Taking into account any observations that mayhave been submitted by the State party concernedas well as any other reliable information available toit, the Committee may designate one or more of itsmembers to conduct an inquiry and to report urgentlyto the Committee. Where warranted and with theconsent of the State party, the inquiry may include avisit to its territory.3. After examining the findings of such an inquiry, theCommittee shall transmit these findings to the Stateparty concerned together with any comments andrecommendations.4. The State party concerned shall, within sixmonths of receiving the findings, comments andrecommendations transmitted by the Committee,submit its observations to the Committee.5. Such an inquiry shall be conducted confidentiallyand the cooperation of the State party shall be soughtat all stages of the proceedings.Innocenti Digest No. 13Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities66