The Individual Communications Procedure Under the Optional Protocol

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (OP-CEDAW) is a separate treaty that can be ratified or acceded to by States that are already Parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This chapter first briefly discusses the background of the Optional Protocol. It then focuses on some of the main elements of the two procedures and the quasi-jurisprudence developed by the CEDAW Committee under these procedures. The individual communication procedure under the OP-CEDAW can be divided into two stages: the admissibility stage and the merits stage. The inquiry procedure provides opportunity for non-governmental organisations to address the CEDAW Committee on alleged systematic or grave violations of womens human rights. The chapter indicates some of the challenges the CEDAW Committee is facing when it deals with the procedures under the Convention. Keywords: CEDAW; communication procedure; inquiry procedure; optional protocol (OP)

Follow-up on individual communications under the optional protocol

Report of the Committee under the Optional Protocol on follow-up to views of the Committee on individual communications

The recent ratification of the State of Chile to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (OP-CEDAW) invites us to reflect on how Chile has related to individual communications procedures of the Universal Human Rights System. This article describes and analyzes individual communications of the Universal Human Rights System, with a special focus on the role of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Moreover, it critically addresses the reasons that delayed the ratification of OP-CEDAW and the challenges it entails for Chilean Human Rights Institutions.

The question of resource allocation is particularly pertinent to the realisation of socioeconomic rights. Perceptions of the place of resource allocation impact the adjudication of these rights. This article departs from the premise that with the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights allowing individual communications and the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, there will be an increase in resource allocation questions for adjudication. The article interrogates the experience of national courts and examines potential lessons that can be adopted at the international level to overcome the reluctance that supra-national tribunals may have when adjudicating on states obligations to fulfil.

The Quest for Information Privacy in Africa: A Review Essay

The core elements of the international legal framework are strong tools for the protection of children affected by armed conflict.However, there are other tools which have not been discussed in this introduction, such as the Ottawa Convention and the European Union Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict, which can contribute to protection.Implementation of this framework needs continued investment in terms of national legislation and allocation of sufficient resources with the involvement of the many agencies such as NGOs, the Special Representative, the Security Council and other UN agencies.This investment should not be limited to children associated with armed forces or armed groups, but instead should include the protection, recovery and reintegration of all children affected by armed conflict, as required under the ACRWC and the CRC.Special attention is given to remedies for children's rights violations-for example, through truth and reconciliation commissions at the national and international level, and the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes against children via special courts and tribunals, and the ICC.The Third Optional Protocol to the CRC providing communications procedure can become an extra tool for remedies.

Realizing Children’s Right to Health: Additional Value of the Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure for Children

The 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in November 2014 is an appropriate occasion for reviewing its record of achievements and challenges in protecting children’s rights worldwide. Clear accomplishments to build on are the comprehensive nature of the Convention and its capacity to accommodate the largely diverse contexts in which its provisions are to be realized. In addition, widespread and massive law reform is one of the most tangible achievements stimulated by the Convention. Finally, the existence and performance of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, charged with monitoring the implementation of the Convention, has been assessed positively. Most recently, this was rewarded with the entry into force of the third Optional Protocol to the Convention, which introduced communications procedures including individual and state complaints mechanisms. After having reviewed this record of selected achievements critically, four selected major challenges that still stand in the way of the fuller realization of the Convention will be presented more briefly. The main reason for this difference in emphasis is that, on the whole, the achievements speak more significantly to issues concerning the progressive development of international law while the challenges are, on the whole, more of a practical nature. The latter are: the persistence of poverty and other root causes of many child rights problems; difficulties in permeating into the private — including domestic and corporate — sphere where a considerable number of child rights violations occur but which are still hardly covered explicitly by international human rights law; and issues concerning the availability of data and resources.

Communication is an essential element of human interaction but can be compromised in several clinical conditions. In the so-called 'locked-in' syndrome (LIS), resulting from a severe motor paralysis, patients are literally confined to their own bodies, while at the same time being fully conscious and awake. In recent years, neuroscientists have focused on developing brain-computer-interfaces (BCIs) for muscle-independent communication using brain signals. During my PhD period, I developed a novel technique enabling healthy volunteers to 'translate' any thinkable word (letter-by-letter) into functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals. Moreover, an automated letter decoding procedure enabled online word decoding and therewith back-and-forth communication within a single fMRI session. The purpose of the current proposal is to perform the next consequential research step: applying the technique to LIS patients and therewith gaining practical experience that will in turn influence further BCI development. The ideal institute for this objective is the Cyclotron Research Centre at the University of Liège (Belgium). There, I intent to extend the current approach by implementing individualized communication procedures to maximize the potential benefit for each patient. This innovative research constitutes an important step towards the development of effective and patient-friendly alternative BCI spelling devices based on hemodynamic brain responses.

Racial discrimination continues to haunt our societies, calling for sustained and new solutions. In 1994, the US government signed the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Three years later, it ratified this international agreement. This article reviews the effectiveness of this United Nations Convention and discusses its main provisions: national reporting and the individual communications procedure. It finds that the treaty contains comprehensive and legally effective provisions to combat racial discrimination and argues that social workers, along with other professionals, should engage with the international legal regime to assist their clientele to combat racial discrimination. Social workers have a number of roles: advocate, educator, service provider and broker. Their involvement in such an international legal regime would have an added significance; it has the potential to expand the domain of international social work as well as overcome the limits of domestic action against racial discrimination.