I. OVERVIEW A human rights treaty is an international agreement that imposes binding obligations to protect and promote rights and freedoms on States that officially accept it (commonly through ratification or accession). Those States are referred to as State parties to the treaty. The treaties are accessible in full from the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).4 The basic concept of the complaint mechanisms under the human rights treaties is that anyone may bring a complaint against a State party alleging a violation of treaty rights to the body of experts monitoring the treaty. These treaty bodies, as they are often called, are committees of independent experts elected by State parties to the treaty. They monitor the implementation by State parties of the rights set forth in the treaties and decide on complaints brought against those States. While there are some procedural variations among the nine mechanisms, their design and operation are very similar. This chapter describes the typical features of a complaint under any of the nine treaties in general. Chapter II describes the aspects of the individual treaties that deviate from the general norm. Against whom can a complaint under a treaty be brought? A complaint under one of the nine treaties can be brought only against a State that satisfies two conditions. First, it must be a party (through ratification or accession) to the treaty that provides for the rights which have allegedly been violated. Second, the State party must have recognized the competence of the committee monitoring that treaty to receive and consider complaints from individuals. For the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, States recognize the committees’ competence by becoming a party to their optional protocols, i.e., separate treaties adopted to complement the provisions of each of the above-mentioned covenants and conventions.5 For the Convention against Torture, the International Convention See www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CoreInstruments.aspx (accessed 28 March 2013). 5 The lists of the State parties to the different treaties and optional protocols are available from http://treaties.un.org/Pages/Treaties.aspx?id=4&subid=A&lang=en (accessed 28 March 2013). 4 3