Human Rights Committee - Working Group on Communications

Official web site: http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/index.htm

The Working Group on Communications was established in 1976 to make recommendations to the Human Rights Committee on communications received under the 1966 International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights, which entered into force in 1976.

With a view to reaching a decision on the admissibility of a communication the Working Group ascertains:

    1. That the communication is not anonymous and comes from an individual subject to the jurisdiction of a State party to the Protocol;

    2. That the individual claims, in a manner sufficiently substantiated, to be a victim of a violation by that State party of any of the rights in the Covenant;

    3. That the communication is not an abuse of the right to submit a communication under the Protocol;

    4. That the communication is not incompatible with the provisions of the Covenant;

    5. That the same matter is not being examined under another procedure of international investigation or settlement; and 6. That the individual has exhausted all available domestic remedies.

The Committee decided to authorize the Working Group to declare communications admissible when unanimously. Failing such agreement, the Working Group would refer the matter to the Committee. It could also do so whenever it believed that the Committee itself should decide the question of admissibility. While the Working Group could not declare communications inadmissible, it might make recommendations in that respect to the Committee.

The Working Group may request the State party concerned or the author of the communication to submit additional written information or observations relevant to the question of the admissibility of the communications. The Working Group is composed of five members of the Committee elected by members of the Committee.

Enabling document: Human Rights Committee - Rules of Procedure - Rule 89
Technical secretariat: Human Rights Treaties Branch
Substantive secretariat: Development and Economic and Social Issues Branch