Human Rights Education Library: Submitting a Complaint to the Human Rights Committee

Electronic Resource Centre for Human Rights Education:
Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights - How to Protect Human Rights

"How to Protect Human Rights?"

Lesson Plan:

Submitting a Complaint to the Human Rights Committee

in Geneva

Maria Bal-Nowak

Copyright by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights

Warsaw, 1997

Submitting a Complaint to the Human Rights Committee

in Geneva

A. The main issues

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (abbreviated as ICCPR) calls for the establishment of a Human Rights Committee to protect the rights defined in the treaty. The Committee is based in Geneva.

The subject of the suggested lessons is the catalogue of rights protected by the ICCPR, the powers and functions of the Human Rights Committee, and the procedure for submitting an individual complaint to the Committee. (A complaint is officially called a "communication")

B. Aims

By the end of the lessons the participants should know the answers to the following questions:

What are the functions of the Human Rights Committee in Geneva?
What can be the subject of a complaint to the Committee? (the participants should know the ICCPR's catalogue of rights)
What are the conditions which must be met in order for the complaint to be considered admissible?
What does the procedure for handling communications look like?
What kind of force do the Human Rights Committee's decisions (officially called "views") have?

C. Comments

Due to the specific problems posed in the following exercises, it is essential that the participants are already familiar with human rights and have a good idea of how the UN human rights system works.
It is highly recommended that the following lessons be preceded by a lecture on the general background of the UN system of human rights protection (you can prepare a lecture based on the enclosed text by Skoczkowa and Bal-Nowak, The UN Human Rights System).
The primary exercise - preparing a complaint to the Committee - can be carried out in two ways:

version 1 - based on a case thought up by the participants

version 2 - based on the case presented in the film "The UN System of Human Rights Protection"

Estimated time needed for the lessons: 90 minutes.
Target group: secondary school pupils in the higher grades; university students

D. Didactic materials

Supplement #1
Supplement #2
film "The UN System of Human Rights Protection"

Documents (enclosed):

excerpts from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (parts I, II & III)

Supplies needed:

a large sheet of paper, markers

E. Lessons

Introduction

1. Review the events that led to the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

and the adoption of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Mention that the Human Rights Committee was established in order to protect the rights and freedoms included in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (referred to as the ICCPR). Point out that the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (referred to as the ICESCR) does not call for such an organ to be founded to protect the provisions of the Covenant.

Next, mention that the powers and functions of the Human Rights Committee include reviewing the periodic reports submitted by member states, communications submitted by member states and individual communications. Individual complaints must refer to violations of rights included in the ICCPR. Point out that a state submitting a complaint against another state must have previously submitted a declaration stating that it recognizes the Human Rights Committee's powers. However, an individual communication in which a state is accused of a human rights violation will be considered by the Committee only if the given state is a party to the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR. In other words, the given state must have ratified the Optional Protocol recognizing the powers of the Committee to consider individual complaints. Here you can add that Poland ratified both Covenants on March 3, 1977, however, the Optional Protocol was not ratified until February 10, 1992.

Make it clear that in the course of these lessons you will be looking for the answer to the following question: "What does the UN system of human rights protection have to offer the individual?" You will be working on formulating an individual communication to the Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

Main Part

2. Divide the participants into 3 groups of 5 to 7 people. Give each group a piece of the

ICCPR (parts I, II, & III). Ask them to determine the catalogue of rights that are included in the Covenant. Ask the groups to take turns naming the right protected in a given article. On the large sheet of paper, write down the catalogue of rights that the groups have determined. Compare it with the catalogue that is in the text The UN Human Rights System, chapter I-2 "International Human Rights Covenants". ( estimated time needed: 20-30 minutes)

2.A.

If you have time and think that it might be interesting for the participants, while recording the rights included in the ICCPR on the paper you can divide them into rights and freedoms. According to the explanation below, you can record rights on one sheet of paper and freedoms on another.

Rights - are the public authorities' responsibilities to each individual

Freedoms - are the protected spheres of an individual's life that are free from the public authorities' interference

Rights require positive action by the state, whereas freedoms demand that the state remain passive in certain spheres of the individual's life.

The following lesson can be conducted in two different ways:

Version 1

3. Hand out Supplement #1 to the groups, "Individual Complaint: Filing Procedure and

Contents". Ask them to read it (if necessary, explain).

4. Based on the information that they have available in the ICCPR excerpts, the catalogue of

rights that they developed earlier, and in Supplement #1, the task is to construct a hypothetical example of a violation of a right protected by the ICCPR that could be the subject of an individual communication to the Human Rights Committee.

NOTE: Once the groups have come up with their hypothetical human rights violations, it important for each group to reconstruct the imagined situation. We recommend that the participants write down their scenarios or act them out.

5. After the groups have decided on the rights that were violated and after they have defined

the subject of the communication, hand out Supplement #2, "Model Communication under the Optional Protocol". Ask each group to fill out the form.

NOTE: Point out that the author of the communication can be:

the victim of the violation
the victim's representative (i.e. relative, attorney, NGO)
someone acting on behalf of the victim (this person must have significant reason to believe that the victim cannot act on his own behalf).

The participants should use Supplement #1 to help them fill out the form.

Estimated time needed: 15 - 20 minutes

6. After the work in groups has been completed, ask the groups' representatives to present their results. The presentation should be comprised of:

a description of the violation that is the subject of the communication
the ICCPR's articles, by number, that protect the rights that were violated
the most significant information that they included in their communications to the Human Rights Committee.

NOTE: Point out to them that they should be using the appropriate terms, such as Covenant, article, paragraph, etc...

Version 2

3. If you are able to work with the videocassette, show them "The UN System of Human

Rights Protection" now. (est. time needed: 20 minutes)

4. After the film, ask them to return to their groups and hand out Supplement #1.

Give them some time to look at the supplement and to prepare the communication on behalf of the dentist.

5. Ask the groups' representatives to present the results of their work. The presentation

should include:

the ICCPR's articles, by number, that protect the rights that were violated in the film.
the most important information that they would include in the communication to the Human Rights Committee.

6. Now you can hand out the Model Communication under the Optional Protocol

(Supplement #2). Referring to the information presented by the groups, each participant fills out the communication form to the Committee.

NOTE: Point out that the author of the communication can be:

the victim of the violation
the victim's representative (i.e. relative, attorney, NGO)
someone acting on behalf of the victim (this person must have significant reason to believe that the victim cannot act on his own behalf).

The participants should use Supplement #1 to help them fill out the form.

Estimated time needed: 15 - 20 minutes

(The completed communication form can be treated as a written, graded assignment)

Recapitulation

7. To end the lessons, summarize the information presented on the International Covenant on

Civil and Political Rights and the Human Rights Committee.

The most relevant information can be written on a large sheet of paper, for example:

Human Rights Committee - Geneva
The Committee was established to protect the rights in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
A communication can be submitted by anyone who believes that their rights, as defined in the ICCPR, have been violated
A communication is considered admissible only if all available domestic remedies have been exhausted
The Human Rights Committee decides whether a given right has been violated or not

8. Now tell briefly about the power of the Committee's "views", i.e. they are not to be

understood as strictly binding in law and cannot be enforced. (The conversation with Professor Anna Michalska in the film can be helpful here.)

Thank everyone for their cooperation.

Supplement #1

INDIVIDUAL COMMUNICATION:

FILING PROCEDURE AND CONTENTS

I. REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING THE SUBMISSION OF AN INDIVIDUAL COMPLAINT

Persons interested in submitting a complaint (a communication under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to the Human Rights Committee) should meet the following conditions which are based on articles 1,2,3 & 5 (2) of the Optional Protocol and certain regulations in the Committee's Statute:

a) The complaint must concern the violation of a right, or rights, included in the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

b) The complaint should be submitted by the victim of the human rights violation, or

by the victim's representative (a person authorized by the victim to act on his

behalf); however, the Committee may decide that a complaint submitted by

someone else is admissible if it seems that the victim has no means of filing the

complaint himself or authorizing someone to act on his behalf

c) The State which is accused of committing the violation must be a Party to the

Optional Protocol

d) The communication can only concern an individual, or individuals, who are subject

to the jurisdiction of the State which is being accused of the violation

e) The alleged violations can only concern events that occurred on or after the day

when the Protocol came into force in the given State. An exception would be if the alleged violations began before that date and either are still taking place after the Protocol had come into force, or if the violations had taken place before that date, however, the consequences arose after the Protocol had come into force.

f) The individual must have exhausted all available domestic remedies, unless the

situation is such that the application of these remedies is unreasonably prolonged

g) If the same complaint is being considered by another international organ (i.e. The

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights or the European Commission on Human Rights), it is not admissible.

II. REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING THE CONTENT OF THE COMPLAINT

All complaints must be submitted to the Human Rights Committee via the Centre for Human Rights, United Nations Office, Geneva, Switzerland. The following information should be included:

a) First name, last name, address, age, profession and citizenship of the victim of the violation

aa) if the author is submitting the communication as the victim's representative, he should clearly indicate in what capacity he is doing so (i.e. as the victim's attorney, relative, friend, etc... and give his name, address and profession as well).

aaa) if the author is neither the victim, nor the victim's authorized representative, he must clearly indicate his reasons for acting on behalf of the victim. The author should provide detailed information justifying the reasons and circumstances for his initiative, and in particular, he should give reasons for his believing that the victim is unable to submit a communication himself. Furthermore, the author needs to indicate his reason for believing that the victim would approve of the author's acting on his behalf.

b) The name of the State against which the communication is directed

c) A detailed description of the facts of the alleged violation or violations (including relevant dates)

d) Article(s) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allegedly violated

e) Steps taken by or on behalf of the alleged victim to exhaust domestic remedies (if possible, enclose copies of all relevant judicial and administrative decisions)

f) Write down if the same matter has been submitted for examination under another procedure of international investigation or settlement. If so, when and with what results?

Supplement #2

MODEL COMMUNICATION UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL

Communication to:

The Human Rights Committee

c/o Centre for Human Rights

United Nations Office Date:

8 - 14 avenue de la Paix

1221 Geneva 10 Switzerland

Submitted for consideration under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

I. Information Concerning the Author of the Communication.

Name .............................................................. First Name(s) ............................................

Nationality...................................................... Profession ..................................................

Date and place of birth..................................................

Present Address...........................................................................................................................

Address for exchange of confidential correspondence

(if other than present address): .................................................................................................

Submitting the communication as:

(a) victim of the violation or violations set forth below ___

(b) representative of the alleged victim(s) ___

(c ) other ___

If the author is submitting the communication as a representative of the alleged victims(s) he should clearly indicate in what capacity he is doing so:

If the author is neither the victim nor his/their representative, he should clearly indicate:

(a) his reasons for acting on behalf of the alleged victim(s):

.......................................................................................................................................................

(b) his reasons for believing that the victim(s) is (are) unable to submit a communication

himself (themselves):

.......................................................................................................................................................

(c ) his reason for believing that the victim(s) would approve the author’s acting on his

(their) behalf:

.......................................................................................................................................................

II. Information Concerning the Alleged Victim(s). (If other than Author)

Name .......................................................... First Name(s) ........................................................

Nationality ................................................. Profession .............................................................

Date and place of birth .................................................................................

Present address or whereabouts ...............................................................................................

Name .......................................................... First Name(s) .......................................................

Nationality ................................................. Profession .............................................................

Date and place of birth .................................................................................

Present address or whereabouts ...............................................................................................

Name .......................................................... First Name(s) .......................................................

Nationality .................................................. Profession ............................................................

Date and place of birth .................................................................................

Present address or whereabouts ..............................................................................................

III. State Concerned/ Articles Violated/ Domestic Remedies/ Other International

Procedures

Name of the State party (country) to the International Covenant and the Optional Protocol against which the communication is directed:

.......................................................................................................................................................

Articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allegedly violated:

.......................................................................................................................................................

Steps taken by or on behalf of the alleged victim(s) to exhaust domestic remedies

(recourse to the courts or other public authorities, when and with what results - if possible, enclose copies of all relevant judicial and administrative decisions:

....................................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................................

If domestic remedies have not been exhausted, explain why:

Has the same matter been submitted for examination under another procedure of international investigation or settlement? If so, when and with what results?

IV. Facts of the Claim

Detailed description of the facts of the alleged violation or violations (including relevant dates)

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Electronic Resource Centre for Human Rights Education:
Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights - How to Protect Human Rights