The Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights has the authority to review "situations which reveal a consistent pattern of violations of human rights" and present recommendations to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).  Since 1970, the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights can consider individual communications, under a procedure known and the 1503 Procedure.  The 1503 Procedure is limited in scope.  It enables two UN bodies, the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection on Human Rights and the Commission on Human Rights to investigate specific types of complaints- those which appear to show consistent or widespread patterns of gross and reliably attested human rights abuses.  The 1503 Procedure, however, applies broadly to any country in the world, not only UN members.

The 1503 Procedure, as amended in 2000, allows the complaints to remain confidential, unless the national government indicates that they should be made public.  At the same time, the 1503 procedure allows the authors of a complaint to have their names deleted and identities not revealed to the government.

Note that the Commission on Human Rights is not the same body as the Human Rights Committee.  The Human Rights Committee is a treaty-monitoring body that enforces the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  The mandate of the Commission on Human Rights is to examine, monitor and report on human rights situations worldwide.  Most of the work of the Commission on Human Rights concerns reporting and monitoring mechanisms, rather than direct complaint mechanisms.  The 1503 Procedure, although it is a complaint mechanism, functions more like reporting in that its purpose is to provide information on patterns of human rights violations and not to redress individual wrongs.

The Economic and Security Council also created by resolution the 1235 Procedure, which should not be confused with the 1503 Procedure.  The 1235 Procedure allows the Commission on Human Rights to create an ad hoc working group of its own members for public study of gross violations of human rights.  Based on its own study the Commission makes recommendations to the Economic and Security Council.  Individuals cannot use the 1235 Procedure, although NGOs can access this mechanism.

The 1503 Procedure is similar to the complaint procedure under the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).  The major distinction, however, is that the purpose of the complaint procedure under the CSW is to identify global trends and patterns of abuse of women's rights, while the 1503 Procedure focuses on widespread human rights abuses in specific countries.