will always have formal standing to bring a case on behalf of his or her child, it is for the Committee to assess whether the custodial or non-custodial parent has managed to substantiate that he or she is representing the free will and the best interest of the child. For this reason it would always be best if the Committee could receive either a letter of authorization or another expression of the child’s opinion whenever a child has reached an age where his or her opinion can be taken into account. In the current case, Jessica is approaching the age in which many jurisdictions attach legal significance to the freely expressed will of the child. For my assessment that Ms. Laing failed to substantiate the claims presented on behalf of Jessica, for purposes of admissibility, it was of some relevance that the Committee received no letter of authorization or other free and direct expression of Jessica’s own opinion. present additional reasons in respect of the claims made on behalf of Jessica Joy Surgeon, now aged ten years. First of all, I wish to make it clear from the outset that I see no problem in the Committee’s approach to derive from article 2 of the Optional Protocol an admissibility condition of substantiation of any claims made of a violation of the Covenant. The reference to a “claim” of a violation in article 2 of the Optional Protocol must be understood as referring to a claim substantiated by relevant facts and legal arguments. Secondly, when finding that Ms. Laing has not managed to substantiate her claims presented on behalf of Jessica, I attach significant importance on article 19 of the Hague Convention on Child Abduction, according to which a decision taken pursuant to the Convention on the return of a child “shall not be taken to be determination on the merits of any custody issue”. As is reflected in paragraph 2.2 of the Committee’s decision, the existing US court decision of May 1995, awarding Mr. Surgeon sole custody of Jessica with no visitation rights for Ms. Laing was made “until further order by a court of competent jurisdiction”. Hence, the case before the Committee is not about returning Jessica to the sole custody of Mr. Surgeon without any visiting rights afforded to Ms. Laing. The result of the application of the Hague Convention would have been in 1996, and still is, merely that Jessica is to be returned to the effective jurisdiction of United States courts so that they can decide about all maters related to custody and access rights. This is pointed out by the State party in paragraphs 4.4, 4.5, 4.19, 4.23 and 6.1 of the Committee’s decision. It has not been substantiated, for purposes of admissibility, that the application of this principle would amount to a violation of Jessica’s rights under the Covenant. This is my main reason for finding the claim presented on behalf of Jessica inadmissible. What follows hereafter, should be seen as supplementary reasons. However, I attach more relevance to the fact that the Optional Protocol procedure always is between two parties, i.e. one or more individuals and a State party to the Optional Protocol. The requirement of substantiation relates to the claims made by the author, not merely to the issue whether the rights of a child have been violated. It may very well be that Jessica is a victim of violations by Australia of her rights under the Covenant. Those violations may result from the decisions made by Australian courts in the case, or from the nonimplementation of those decisions, or from the possibility that the decisions would be implemented in the future by returning Jessica to the United States. The claim made by Ms. Laing on behalf of Jessica relates, at least primarily, to the third one of these options. It would be a part of her duty to substantiate the claim to demonstrate to the Committee that the implementation of the Court decisions taken several years ago is now likely or at least a real possibility, instead of mere speculation. In addressing the question whether such a claim is substantiated the Committee would need to keep in mind also the alternative scenario of a parent claiming a violation of the human rights of an abducted child due to the nonimplementation of the decisions of a State party’s own courts to return the child to the jurisdiction of the country from which he or she was removed. While there is no general solution to such conflicting human rights claims, this setting of potentially conflicting claims affects the application of the substantiation requirement as one of the admissibility conditions. As is spelled out in paragraph 7.3 of the Committee’s decision, it is its consistent practice that a parent is entitled to represent an under-aged child in the Optional Protocol proceedings without explicit written authorization. This approach also means that either one of the parents, custodial or non-custodial, is entitled to submit a communication on behalf of a child, alleging violations of his or her rights. While this approach means that a parent 15