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Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: communications procedure for claims by individuals and groups

An Optional Protocol was adopted to the United National Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1999. The Optional Protocol contains a communications procedure that allows individual women, or groups of women, to submit claims of violations of rights protected under the Convention to the CEDAW Committee.

The claims must be submitted in writing and may not be anonymous. Before a complaint is considered, the Committee must be satisfied that all available domestic remedies have been exhausted, unless the application of such remedies is unreasonably prolonged or unlikely to bring effective relief. Complaints are also not considered if

  • the complaint has already been examined by the Committee or has been or is being examined under another procedure of international investigation or settlement;
  • the complaint is not compatible with the provisions of the Convention;
  • the complaint is manifestly unfounded or the claimants' allegations cannot be substantiated;
  • the complaint is an abuse of the right to submit a communication; or
  • the facts presented occurred before the State party ratified the Protocol, unless those facts continued after that date.

The Protocol also allows the Committee to initiate an investigation into grave or systematic violations of rights established in the Convention.

Finland was amongst the first countries to ratify the Protocol in December 2000, and it entered into force in Finland on 29 March 2001 (SopS 20-21/2001).

The Committee’s rulings on claims submitted under the Optional Protocol can be found on the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights