The Committee may, if necessary, decline to consider a complaint if it does not reveal that the author has suffered a clear disadvantage, unless the Committee considers that the complaint raises a serious issue of general importance. Additional pointers The Optional Protocol sets a time limit for submitting complaints to the Committee. A complaint must be submitted within one year of exhausting domestic remedies, unless the author can demonstrate that it was impossible to do so. At any time after the receipt of a complaint and before a conclusion has been reached on the merits, the Committee may consult relevant documentation from United Nations bodies, specialized agencies, funds, programmes and mechanisms, and other international organizations, including from regional human rights systems, that may assist in the examination of the case, provided that the Committee affords the State party and the complainant an opportunity to comment on such documentation. When examining complaints, the Committee will consider the reasonableness of the steps taken by the State party regarding the implementation of the rights set forth in the Covenant. In doing so, the Committee will bear in mind that the State party may adopt a range of policy measures to this end. The Committee may request the State party to include information on any action taken in response to its views, recommendations or friendly settlement agreements in its periodic reports on the general implementation of the Covenant.26 I. Procedure under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure27 The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted on 20 November 1989, imposes obligations on State parties to respect the rights of the child. The substantive obligations are set out in Part I of the Convention (arts. 1–41), as well as in its Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. The Convention’s complaint mechanism is established by its Optional Protocol on a communications procedure, which was adopted on 19 December 2011. It is a separate treaty open to State parties to the Convention and its two substantive Optional Protocols. States that have Reports submitted under articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant. At the time of writing, the Optional Protocol on a communications procedure had not yet entered into force. 26 27 22