Complaint-Information Procedure

Consistent patterns of gross human rights violations/situations that affect a large number of people over a protracted period of time

Individuals or NGOs; not necessarily the victim of the violation but with "direct and reliable" knowledge. 

NGOs can initiate a complaint and can later offer supplementary information.

No individual remedies, but the procedure may lead to a decision that gross human rights violations have occurred and should be remedied.

There is no formal procedure for submitting a complaint under the 1503 Procedure, however, the communication must meet a number of admissibility criteria to be considered:

The complaint must be in writing.

The names of the authors of the complaint (individuals or an NGO) should be included.  If the author chooses to remain anonymous, this must be stated in the complaint. 

The complaint must show the existence of a consistent pattern of gross and reliably attested human rights violations.  Thus, the complaint should include a detailed description of the facts, evidence of the violation and state which rights have been violated. 

The complaint should include a statement of purpose, which explains the reasons for the submission.

The complaint should contain information about the exhaustion of domestic remedies.

The complaint should not contain abusive language, be politically motivated or be based solely on information from the mass media.

The United Nations Fact Sheet 7 includes general information about the submitting a complaint under the 1503 Procedure and the criteria of admissibility.

Commission/Sub-Commission Team (1503 Procedure)
Support Services Branch
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations
1211 Genève 10
Switzerland
Tel: + 41 22 917 9000
Fax: + 41 22 917 9011
Email:  1503.hchr@unog.ch

After receiving a communication, the Centre for Human Rights will contact the State against which the complaint was made.  The State has 12 weeks in which to submit as response on the admissibility of the complaint.  The Centre for Human Rights summarizes the communications for the Human Rights Commission and the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

Before a meeting of the Sub-Commission, a smaller five-person working group meets once a year to review the communications and the States' replies.  At this stage, cases in which there is no evidence of a "consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights" are screened out.  The working group will forward a small number of cases for further consideration to the Sub-Commission.

The Sub-Commission can reject the case, refer the case for further investigation to a working group or refer the case to the Human Rights Commission.  First the case is reviewed by a five-person group of the Commission and, if necessary, then by the full Commission.  The Commission can: (1) end consideration of the case, if no human rights violations occurred; (2) postpone consideration of the case; (3) initiate a study of the situation or (4) create an ad hoc committee to investigate the situation.  Although the 1503 Procedure is confidential, in its annual report, the Commission publishes the names the countries that were under consideration and the recommended actions to be taken.

NGOs can submit complaints, although participation in the review process is extremely limited.  The 1503 Procedure is useful for drawing attention to serious underlying problem but not for cases of violations of individuals' human rights.  The procedure if useful if a victim wants the UN to investigate the situation in her country, but not her particular case.  The strict confidentiality of the procedure protects victims but does not allow the procedure to be used for publicity or for advocacy purposes.