c Pursuant to rule 94, paragraph 3, of the Committee's rules of procedure, the text(s) of an individual opinion is/are appended to the views (after amendment of the rules of procedure). INTRODUCTION 1. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol thereto were adopted by the General Assembly on 16 December 1966 and entered into force on 23 March 1976. 2. In accordance with article 28 of the Covenant, the States parties established the Human Rights Committee on 20 September 1976. 3. Under the Optional Protocol, individuals who claim that any of their rights set forth in the Covenant have been violated and who have exhausted all available domestic remedies may submit written communications to the Human Rights Committee for consideration. Of the 92 States that have acceded to or ratified the Covenant, 50 have accepted the competence of the Committee to receive and consider individual complaints by ratifying or acceding to the Optional Protocol.* No communication can be received by the Committee if it concerns a State party to the Covenant which is not also a party to the Optional Protocol. 4. Under the terms of the Optional Protocol, the Committee may consider a communication only if certain conditions of admissibility are satisfied. These conditions are set out in articles 1, 2, 3 and 5 of the Optional Protocol and restated in rule 90 in the Committee's provisional rules of procedure, pursuant to which the Committee shall ascertain: (a) That the communication is not anonymous and that it emanates from an individual, or individuals, subject to the jurisdiction of a State party to the Protocol; (b) That the individual claims to be a victim of a violation by that State party of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant. Normally, the communication should be submitted on behalf of an alleged victim when it appears that the victim is unable to submit the communication himself; (c) That the communication is not an abuse of the right to submit a communication under the Protocol; (d) That the communication is not incompatible with the provisions of the Covenant; 7