last updated June 5, 2013

Additional Resources on the Complaint Mechanism

Information about the complaint mechanism under the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is available on the Human Rights Committee website. UN Doc. CCPR/C/104/3 articulates NGO participation in the work of Committee.

Frontline, an Irish NGO, has created a Human Rights Defenders Manual, which includes detailed information on submitting complaints to the Human Rights Committee in cases of specific human rights violations. Additional information, including a database of individual complaints and follow-up to individual communications, is available from the Centre for Civil and Political Rights.

Additional Resources on the Reporting Procedure

The Human Rights Committee website includes text of the Covenant and Optional Protocol, status of ratification, reservations and declarations, general recommendations of the Committee, and the calendar of sessions, which includes State party reports, lists of issues, NGO shadow reports, and concluding observations. .

The Centre for Civil and Political Rights provides support to NGOs wishing to participate in the Committee’s reporting procedure and provides guidelines for NGOs preparing to submit shadow reports.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published Working with the United National Human Rights Programme: A Handbook for Civil Society in 2008. That same year, the Center for Reproductive Rights published a an update to Bringing Rights to Bear, which includes briefing papers on Freedom from Violence and other topics of women’s rights protected under the Covenant.

Additional information on writing and strategically using shadow reports, as well as sample NGO reports can be found in the Human Rights Investigation and Documentation section of this website.