Claiming Human Rights

Individual Complaints to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

If persons with disabilities find their rights violated by a state, they may submit a complaint to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, providing that the state in question has ratified both the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the corresponding Optional Protocol.

Individual complaints are examined in closed session. In its decision, the Committee considers the information provided by the complainant as well as additional comments by the concerned state party. (Schematic representation: How the individual complaint procedure works)

The communication must be submitted by the alleged victim or by someone assigned by the victim to act on his/her behalf. The Committee is prohibited from considering a case which is already examined under another procedure of international investigation. Also, the following conditions have to be met:

• the communication must not be anonymous;
• it must not constitute an “abuse of the right”, which means that there must a reasonable use of the right to submit a communication;
• the author must have tried to exhaust all available domestic remedies in his/her country and
• the violation did not occur prior to the date on which the state ratified the Optional Protocol.

African States Parties to the Optional Protocol

Individual complaints can only be submitted against states which have ratified the Optional Protocol to the ICRPD. As of February 2012, the following African States have ratified the Protocol: