On 19 December 2011, the United Nations General Assembly, at its sixty-sixth session, adopted by resolution 66/138 the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure. It was not signed that day. The resolution recommends opening at a signing ceremony in 2012. The UNTC records that it opened in Geneva on 28 February 2012 and thereafter at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Depositary: the Secretary-General. The Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic (Article 24). Registration: UNTS 27531, volume 2983.

Article 1: the competence of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, as provided in this Protocol. Article 2: in fulfilling its functions the Committee shall be guided by the best interests of the child and shall have regard for the rights and views of the child, given due weight in accordance with age and maturity. Article 3: child-sensitive rules of procedure; safeguards to prevent the manipulation of the child by those acting on his or her behalf; the Committee may decline to examine any communication that it considers not to be in the child’s best interests. Article 4: a State party shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that individuals under its jurisdiction are not subjected to human rights violation, ill-treatment or intimidation as a consequence of communications; identity shall not be revealed publicly without express consent.

Article 5: individual communications, by or on behalf of an individual or group of individuals within the jurisdiction of a State party, claiming to be victims of a violation of rights in the Convention or in either of the first two Optional Protocols to which that State is a party. On behalf of another, with consent, unless the author can justify acting without such consent. Article 6: interim measures in exceptional circumstances, without implying a determination on admissibility. Article 7: a communication is inadmissible, among other grounds, if it is anonymous, not in writing, an abuse of the right of submission, the same matter has already been examined, domestic remedies have not been exhausted, it is manifestly ill-founded, the facts occurred before entry into force for that State (unless they continued), or it is submitted more than one year after exhaustion of domestic remedies, except where that was not possible.

Article 9: good offices with a view to a friendly settlement. Article 10: communications examined in closed meetings; thereafter views and recommendations. Article 12: inter-State communications, subject to a declaration recognizing competence. Article 13: a confidential inquiry if reliable information indicates grave or systematic violations; a visit to the territory only with the consent of the State party. Article 18: open for signature to any State that has signed, ratified or acceded to the Convention or either of the first two Optional Protocols. Article 19(1): it enters into force three months after deposit of the tenth instrument of ratification or accession. Entry into force: 14 April 2014. Article 22: denunciation takes effect one year after notification.

The parent Convention remains that of 20 November 1989. The Protocol does not describe the offences in the other instruments; it names them only as a legal basis. This is not a handbook of how to file complaints.

The list of States parties is not set out here.

United Nations Headquarters, New York, the place of adoption, not the Geneva signing ceremony. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

For context: Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure. The text: General Assembly resolution 66/138.