# Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

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United Nations • Nations Unies New York, 1983
OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
The States Parties to the present Protocol,
Considering that in order further to achieve the purposes of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Covenant) and the im plementation of its provisions it would be appropriate to enable the Human Rights Committee set up in part IV of the Covenant (hereinafter referred to as the Commit tee) to receive and consider, as provided in the present Protocol, communications from individuals claiming to be victims of violations of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant,
Have agreed as follows:
Article 1. A State Party to the Covenant that becomes a party to the present Protocol recognizes the competence of the Committee to receive and consider com munications from individuals subject to its jurisdiction who claim to be victims of a violation by that State Party of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant. No com munication shall be received by the Committee if it concerns a State Party to the Covenant which is not a party to the present Protocol.
Article 2. Subject to the provisions of article 1, individuals who claim that any of their rights enumerated in the Covenant have been violated and who have ex hausted all available domestic remedies may submit a written communication to the Committee for consideration.
Article 3. The Committee shall consider inadmissible any communication under the present Protocol which is anonymous, or which it considers to be an abuse ​of the right of submission of such communications or to be incompatible with the provisions of the Covenant.
Article 4. 1. Subject to the provisions of article 3, the Committee shall bring any communications submitted to it under the present Protocol to the attention of the State Party to the present Protocol alleged to be violating any provision of the Covenant.
2. Within six months, the receiving State shall submit to the Committee writ ten explanations or statements clarifying the matter and the remedy, if any, that may have been taken by that State.
Article 5. 1. The Committee shall consider communications received under the present Protocol in the light of all written information made available to it by the individual and by the State Party concerned.
2. The Committee shall not consider any communication from an individual unless it has ascertained that:
3. The Committee shall hold closed meetings when examining communica tions under the present Protocol.
4. The Committee shall forward its views to the State Party concerned and to the individual. Article 6. The Committee shall include in its annual report under article 45 of the Covenant a summary of its activities under the present Protocol.
Article 7. Pending the achievement of the objectives of resolution 1514 (XV) adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 14 December I960 concerning the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, the provisions of the present Protocol shall in no way limit the right of petition granted to these peoples by the Charter of the United Nations and other international conventions and instruments under the United Nations and its specialized agencies.
Article 8. 1. The present Protocol is open for signature by any State which has signed the Covenant.
2. The present Protocol is subject to ratification by any State which has ratified or acceded to the Covenant. Instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
3. The present Protocol shall be open to accession by any State which has rati fied or acceded to the Covenant.
4. Accession shall be effected by the deposit of an instrument of accession with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
5. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall inform all States which have signed the present Protocol or acceded to it of the deposit of each instrument of ratification or accession. ​
Article 9. 1. Subject to the entry into force of the Covenant, the present Protocol shall enter into force three months after the date of the deposit with the Secretary-General of the United Nations of the tenth instrument of ratification or in strument of accession.
2. For each State ratifying the present Protocol or acceding to it after the deposit of the tenth instrument of ratification or instrument of accession, the present Protocol shall enter into force three months after the date of the deposit of its own instrument of ratification or instrument of accession.
Article 10. The provisions of the present Protocol shall extend to all parts of federal States without any limitations or exceptions.
Article 11. 1. Any State Party to the present Protocol may propose an amendment and file it with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Secretary-General shall thereupon communicate any proposed amendments to the States Parties to the present Protocol with a request that they notify him whether they favour a conference of States Parties for the purpose of considering and voting upon the proposal. In the event that at least one third of the States Parties favours such a conference, the Secretary-General shall convene the conference under the aus pices of the United Nations. Any amendment adopted by a majority of the States Parties present and voting at the conference shall be submitted to the General Assembly of the United Nations for approval.
2. Amendments shall come into force when they have been approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations and accepted by a two-thirds majority of the States Parties to the present Protocol in accordance with their respective constitutional processes.
3. When amendments come into force, they shall be binding on those States Parties which have accepted them, other States Parties still being bound by the provisions of the present Protocol and any earlier amendment which they have accepted.
Article 12. 1. Any State Party may denounce the present Protocol at any time by written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Denunciation shall take effect three months after the date of receipt of the notification by the Secretary-General.
2. Denunciation shall be without prejudice to the continued application of the provisions of the present Protocol to any communication submitted under article 2 before the effective date of denunciation. Article 13. Irrespective of the notifications made under article 8, paragraph 5, of the present Protocol, the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall inform all States referred to in article 48, paragraph 1, of the Covenant of the following par ticulars:
Article 14. 1. The present Protocol, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations. ​
2. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall transmit certified copies of the present Protocol to all States referred to in article 48 of the Covenant.
IN FAITH WHEREOF the undersigned, being duly authorized thereto by their respective Governments, have signed the present Protocol, opened for signature at New York, on the nineteenth day of December, one thousand nine hundred and sixty-six.
* ↑ into force on 23 March 1976 in respect of the following States, i.e., three months after the date of the deposit with the Secretary-General of the United Nations of the tenth instrument of ratification or accession (the Covenant of 19 December 1966 on Civil and Political Rights having itself entered into force), in accordance with article 9 (1): State Date of deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession (a) Costa Rica ......................(Signature affixed on 19 December 1966.) 29 November 1968 Ecuador ........................(Signature affixed on 4 April 1968.) 6 March 1969 Colombia .......................(Signature affixed on 21 December 1966.) 29 October 1969 Uruguay ........................(Signature affixed on 21 February 1967.) 1 April 1970 Madagascar .....................(Signature affixed on 17 September 1969.) 21 June 1971 Sweden ....................... (Signature affixed on 29 September 1967.) 6 December 1971 State Date of deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession (a) Denmark......................(Signature affixed on 20 March 1968.) 6 January 1972 Norway .......................(Signature affixed on 20 March 1968.) 13 September 1972 Barbados ....................... 5 January 1973a Mauritius ....................... 12 December 1973a Finland .........................(Signature affixed on 11 December 1967.) 19 August 1975 Jamaica.........................(Signature affixed on 19 December 1966.) 3 October 1975 * Same procedure, mutatis mutandis, as for the Covenant itself: see note**, p. 173. ** See p. 346 of this volume for the texts of the declarations and reservations made upon ratification or ac cession.
* ↑ United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifteenth Session, Supplement No, 16 (A/4684), p, 66.
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