Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
An individual complaints mechanism was suggested during the original drafting of CEDAW, but was rejected at the time. Fifteen years later, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights suggested that new procedures were needed to implement the Convention, and suggested a "right of petition". An independent expert group produced a draft in 1994, containing a complaint procedure and an inquiry procedure, and this was adopted for further study by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in early 1995. The idea of an Optional Protocol was further endorsed by the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, which called for "the elaboration (of) a draft optional protocol to the Women's Convention that could enter into force as soon as possible."